Land Lab

Founded in 2022, The Fuller Initiative Land Lab (FILL) operates as an “innovation landscape” to support trans-disciplinary field experiments and experiential learning. This initiative follows a recent movement in Landscape Architecture education to use the campus as the subject of research, and as testing ground for material experimentation. The Land Lab concept emerged as a way to bring Overlook pedagogy to campus after the 2020 “Experiment” field school was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Located on a former quarry and landfill, the FILL serves as an outdoor classroom for the Overlook seminar to “learn through making” – with a distinct focus on ecological and aesthetic education. Thanks to a long-standing partnership with UO Campus Planning and Facilities Management, students are able to design, test, and install temporary installations at the lab, and exhibit their work to the larger Eugene community that uses the Willamette River Natural Area. The FILL is managed by Lab Director, Michael Geffel.

Adaptive Management [2018-present]

Initiated during the 2018 Overlook Seminar on “Maintenance,” an adaptive management field experiment has been conducted by Professor of Practice Michael Geffel, UO Campus Planning & Facilities Management, and Lucan Landscaping to understand how the novel maintenance approach of “drift mowing” might strike a balance between Himalayan Blackberry control and meadow succession. Drift Mowing uses operational patterns to demonstrate that the site is cared for while allowing meadow drifts to remain if blackberries are not present. Meadow drifts provide habitat for birds, small mammals, and pollinators, while also providing an aesthetically diverse landscape for the broader public that recreates along the river.

After three years of the field experiment, drift mowing was no longer necessary to identify the extent of invasive species – and the surrounding meadows did not need to be cut at all – so long as the edge between bramble and meadow was delineated before spring emergence. By holding this line, the University’s mowing contractor, Lucan Landscaping, could easily target the invasive species in half the time (and leave half the site entirely unmown). The resulting formal language and spatial distribution of meadows are entirely derived from the population ecology of the landscape as mediated through infrastructural maintenance. This research is documented using aerial photogrammetry and multi-spectral imagery, and has been published in Landscape Journal, Kerb, LA+, and Making-Do in Urbanism and the Arts (forthcoming).

Wildflower Test Plots [2021-present]

Following construction of the Ruth Bascom Riverfront Bike Path and adjacent EWEB water supply line, the Fuller Initiative adopted the two disturbed easements within the Land Lab after the initial hydroseeded native grasses failed. Together with UO ecology professors and a local native nursery, a native pollinator seed mix was developed to study which native species were best adapted to severely compacted soil conditions. Expanding on this field experiment, temporary protection fencing was installed around two test plots to monitor the effect of goose browse on meadow establishment. After a joyful seeding event, the team approached the Goose Exclusion Fence Lots [GEFL’s] as a temporary art installation and opportunity to explore the aesthetic potential of common landscape products. Materials were selected based on their potential for reuse through later phases, effectively making the GEFL a 750 LF mockup for later distributed installations.

WAIT… slowscapes [We Are Investigating Time]

The design research collaborative WAIT…slowscapes (We Are Investigating Time) was created by Abby Pierce (MLA ’22) and Masayo Simon (MLA ’22) as an art-based research practice that emerged from making do with remote education. For their master’s projects, the collaboration used creative fieldwork to form an intimate connection with the site and explore design processes that center land care. WAIT’s explorations included active observation, labor, performance, commitment, and community engagement, and were critical in establishing the identity and culture of the Fuller Initiative Land Lab. You can view booklets summarizing their masters projects at the links below:

Abby Pierce, “Land Care in the Expanded Field”

Masayo Simon, “Sensing / Becoming Sensitive”

Oregon Experience Laboratory

During the World Athletics Championships (Oregon22), the Fuller Initiative Land Lab received a sponsorship by Travel Oregon to create seven interactive landscape installations, each representing a different landscape of Oregon. Partnering with the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS), and Fuller Design Fellow, David Buckley Borden, the “Oregon Experience Laboratory” included an embedded challenge within each installation, that when solved, opened a “portal” to its specified region using an Mixed-Reality app designed by CASLS. This game-based overlay allowed international guests to view the diversity of Oregon’s landscapes and was accessible to those who speak English as a second language. Despite the new focus on representational installations, the exhibition relied on the same materials as earlier research activities, reconfigured based on the aesthetic discoveries from previous assemblies. Following the Oregon Experience Laboratory exhibition, the “waves” have now become the Land Lab standard for temporary protection fencing.

The project was awarded by the Oregon Society of Landscape Architects in the Pro-Bono and Climate Action categories.

Cryptic Sounds Exhibition

In the Spring of 2023, the Department of Landscape Architecture was allocated space to operate the “Overlook Outdoor Instructional Area” over the next 5 years. “Overlook” refers to both the Willamette River Natural Area Landscape Management Plan recommendation for a river viewpoint adjacent to the site, as well as the nationally awarded program which lies at the heart of the Fuller Initiative. For the inaugural year of the outdoor instructional area, the Overlook seminar hosted sound artist, Lisa Schonberg, to lead a workshop called “Cryptic Sounds.” Students were trained in “soundscape ecology” and developed compositions from a diverse collection of recordings including: the dawn chorus, kildeer, foliage (wind), ants (contact mic), mill race (hydrophone), rail line (geophone), spring game festivities, and the Eugene Marathon. The seminar culminated with a field broadcast of these compositions, alongside temporary installations, and instrument prototypes from the seminar.

Field Assistants

2024 | Janessa Beltran, Katie Sinclair, Miriel Orhai, Nicole Konicke, Tayler Uesato, Tellez Santaella

Alumni | Evan Kwiecien, Ian Vierck, McKenna O’Neill, Tressa Cummings, Sarah Goldstein, Natalia Dorkina, Jenna Witzleben, Abby Pierce, Masayo Simon, Izzy Ospina Rodriguez, Carolyn Corl, Nick Sund

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