MATTHEW TUCKER
I am a designer and teacher with a strong background in ecologically and culturally sensitive site design that is informed by the changing patterns and processes of place. My professional and scholarly interests focus upon our complex relationships with the environment and how these relationships are manifested in both novel and designed postnatural ecologies and hydrologies. I have a particular interest in emerging critical design practices that explore the paradox of human agency in the Anthropocene landscape.
Over the past 25 years I have developed a portfolio of built projects, speculative research, field documentation, and classroom instruction. This work is drawn towards post-industrial or post-agricultural sites with complex social, environmental, and ecological histories. These are often contradictory landscapes, where the predominant social narratives, aesthetic values, or scientific tropes have marginalized social communities or overlooked vibrant postnatural ecologies. In response, my design practice and applied research seeks to reframe our perception and appreciation of these landscapes and their inhabitants.
I am originally from Sioux City, Iowa with Boston and New England as my adopted "second home". I was lucky enough to spend much of my formative years exploring the Loess Hills of western Iowa and the ever-changing landscape of the Missouri, Big Sioux and Floyd Rivers. These early experiences had a significant influence on my appreciation of dynamic landscape change and led to a dual major in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Studies from Iowa State University and a Master of Landscape Architecture with Distinction from Harvard's Graduate School of Design.