Master in Landscape Architecture, Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, The Netherlands (2014)
MA in Design for the Environment, Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts, London, U.K. (2002)
BA, Independent Scholar in Environmental Science, Philosophy, and Fine Arts, Amherst College, MA (1996)
Landscape Architect, Dutch Registry of Architects, The Netherlands
Jacques's aim as a designer and researcher is to envision the future city through the potential of landscape. His research and built work seeks to weave together spatial design, social justice, and food systems into the fabric of public space and infrastructure. He is active in Europe, South America, and the United States. His research and teaching focus on multi-functional green infrastructure systems, urban agroforestry, infrastructural ecology, and the emerging field of landscape democracy. His built work and installations seek to bring ecological cycles and food systems to life through aesthetic, tactile, and educational interventions. This work includes the Landscape Table (De Landschapstafel, Brussels, Belgium), the Mushroom Tree Forest (Vertical Mushroom Farm, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and the Kadijkveste Pluktuin (a rooftop fruit and herb forest in the heart of Amsterdam.)
Jacques's research focuses on the potential of landscape at the intersection of the social, the spatial, and the ecological. Urban LACE: Local Agroforestry Collective Engagement is a recent ongoing research project which develops a vision for large-scale urban agroforestry with indigenous species in Porto Alegre, Brazil. By visualizing the city as a platform for ecological and social production, the project creates alternative images for liveable, productive, biodiverse, and socially just future cities.
Jacques has exhibited his work internationally, including at the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (Par(c)kdesign: Par(c)kFarm, 2016); CITIES Foundation, Noorderparkkamer (Farming the City: Mushroom Tree Forest, 2012); Red Points Park 2050, at the AIA in New York (2011); and the Barcelona European Landscape Biennal (A Walk on the Wild Side: An Agroforestry Vision for Landscape and Agricultural Renewal in Twente, The Netherlands, 2010). Jacques most recently taught at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where his courses included landscape architecture design, design research, and critical theory.
Publications (selected)
Abelman, J. (2016). Cultivating the City: Design Research for Productive Infrastructures in the Global South. In Wiskerke, H. (Ed.), Amsterdam Academy of Architecture: Research-Reflections-Projects. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura Publishers. (forthcoming)
Parham, S., and Abelman, J. (2018). Food and Urban Design. In Zeunert, J. & Waterman, T. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Food and Landscape. Abingdon: Routledge.
Abelman, J. (2015). Cultivating the City: Infrastructures of Abundance in Urban Brazil. Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, 3(1), 99-106.
Abelman, J. (2015). Cultivating the City: Infrastructures of Abundance in Urban Brazil. Urban Agriculture Magazine (RUAF), 29, 62-65.
Oles, T., Abelman, J. and Timmermans, M. (2014). Go with Me: 50 Steps to Landscape Thinking. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura Publishers.
Solomon, D. and Abelman, J. (2012). Foodscape Schilderswijk: Urban Agriculture Typological Mapping in The Hague. In Food for the City: A Future for the Metropolis. Den Haag: NAi Publishers / Stroom.
Abelman, J. (2010). Ecologically Emergent Leisure Landscapes. In White, M. & Przybylski, M.. (Eds.), On Farming: Bracket 01. Barcelona and New York: Actar Publishers.
