ABSTRACT
The big issues facing the future of the planet are climate change, increasing population, food and food security, renewable energy and wellness – human, animal, and environmental. To me the rural areas of the world are special because they are places that have a strong connection with the natural and cultivated landscape, illustrating the character of people who live and work with the land and the relationship between land form and architecture. The sketches are of places that Sharon and I have visited that illustrate this connection and often are rural villages or working farming places where the land is cultivated to grow food and utilized as the primary economic source of the region. They may be historic places or contemporary but, regardless, exhibit a clear and understandable relationship of place, culture and climate. When I founded the Center for Rural Design at the University of Minnesota in 1997, it was the first time ever that rural design was utilized as a problem-solving process to resolve rural land issues. This chapter focuses on rural landscapes around the world to express the importance of rural places, agricultural landscapes and rural people that need to be recognized by urbanity for a healthy global future.
