THIS YEARS THEME IS
"POKE AROUND"

Since 1970, LABash has challenged each generation of landscape architecture students to reflect on the role of our profession. Each conference captures a distinct moment in time, encouraging us to think critically about where landscape architecture is headed and how, as emerging professionals, we can help shape its future.

Today, we find ourselves designing in a world that moves faster than ever before. New technologies are transforming the way we communicate, visualize, and create. Information is readily available, expectations are constantly evolving, and the pressure to find answers quickly has become embedded in the design process. Yet while our tools continue to evolve, one thing remains constant: meaningful landscape architecture begins long before the final rendering or construction documents. It begins with curiosity.

That idea is at the heart of Poke Around.

The best ideas rarely begin with certainty. They begin with curiosity, with asking questions, wandering off the path, making mistakes, and discovering possibilities that could never have been planned from the start. To poke around is to slow down long enough to notice what others overlook. It means exploring unfamiliar ideas, embracing uncertainty, and remaining open to discovery. Every meaningful design begins with a willingness to poke around.

There is no better place to embrace that mindset than the Sonoran Desert. At first glance, the landscape appears harsh and unforgiving, yet those willing to look closer discover the most biodiverse desert in the world. Every organism, landform, and community tells a story of adaptation, resilience, and an enduring relationship with place. For thousands of years, Indigenous communities have demonstrated that thriving in this environment comes not from resisting the landscape, but from understanding it. The desert rewards those who are curious enough to slow down, observe, and learn.

As emerging landscape architects, our own journeys follow a similar path. We sharpen our skills not by always having the right answer, but by remaining open to exploration. Every sketch, site visit, conversation, and design iteration becomes an opportunity to question assumptions, embrace uncertainty, and uncover new ways of thinking.

Through curiosity, we discover opportunities we never knew existed. Through discomfort, we gain the confidence to grow beyond what feels familiar. Through resilience, we develop the skills and responsibility to steward landscapes, communities, and the profession. And by listening to the land, to history, and to one another, we build a deeper understanding of place and the people who shape it. Meaningful design is not the product of certainty, but of continual exploration, thoughtful observation, and lifelong learning.

LABash 2027 invites attendees to experience Arizona through this lens. Inspired by the landscapes, ecology, history, and cultures of the Sonoran Desert, Poke Around celebrates exploration as the foundation of design. Throughout the conference, attendees will be encouraged to look closer, ask questions, challenge familiar perspectives, and discover that meaningful ideas often emerge where we least expect them. Together, we will celebrate curiosity as the foundation of design and recognize that some of the most meaningful lessons are found when we venture beyond what is familiar.
Poke Around is more than an invitation to explore the Sonoran Desert; it is a reminder that the strongest designers are not those who always have the answers, but those who never stop asking questions. 

Because sometimes the most meaningful discoveries are not the ones we set out to find, they are the ones we uncover by poking around.

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