Abstract
This paper traces the emergence of territorial design as a distinct discourse and practice that repositions urban-landscape design from site-based form-making toward socio-ecological governance across scales. Drawing on a systematic review of scholarly literature (1960-2025), a practice survey (42 questionnaires with designers working in France), and three comparative case studies - Room for the River, Medellín’s social urbanism, and riverfront renaturation projects in Paris and Lyon - we show how ecological planning, landscape urbanism, and territorialist thought converge into methods that couple territorial diagnosis, morphological and biophysical patterning, and participatory co-design. The analysis foregrounds two fertile frictions: replicability vs. situatedness, and short political cycles vs. long ecological rhythms. We argue that territorial design extends the remit of design toward metabolic flows and governance interfaces, articulate a role typology - mediator, systems integrator, custodia -, and propose a triad of metrics - biodiversity, climate resilience, and habitability - to evaluate territorial transformations.
Keywords
territorial design; territorial governance; socio-ecological systems; urban-landscape practice
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1450
Citation
Eberhardt, S. (2026) Territorial design as frictional landscapes: reframing urban-landscape discourse and practice into multi-scalar governance, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1450
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Territorial design as frictional landscapes: reframing urban-landscape discourse and practice into multi-scalar governance
This paper traces the emergence of territorial design as a distinct discourse and practice that repositions urban-landscape design from site-based form-making toward socio-ecological governance across scales. Drawing on a systematic review of scholarly literature (1960-2025), a practice survey (42 questionnaires with designers working in France), and three comparative case studies - Room for the River, Medellín’s social urbanism, and riverfront renaturation projects in Paris and Lyon - we show how ecological planning, landscape urbanism, and territorialist thought converge into methods that couple territorial diagnosis, morphological and biophysical patterning, and participatory co-design. The analysis foregrounds two fertile frictions: replicability vs. situatedness, and short political cycles vs. long ecological rhythms. We argue that territorial design extends the remit of design toward metabolic flows and governance interfaces, articulate a role typology - mediator, systems integrator, custodia -, and propose a triad of metrics - biodiversity, climate resilience, and habitability - to evaluate territorial transformations.