Kees Lokman is Associate Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. His research focuses on design challenges related to sea level rise adaptation, water and food shortages, and the energy transition. He directs the UBC Coastal Adaptation Lab, which aims to foreground community values in the development of novel planning, design, and policy solutions for coastal adaptation.
Kees is currently leading Living with Water, a transdisciplinary research project funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. Living with Water brings together researchers, staff from the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) First Nation, Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nation, as well as managers from municipal and provincial governments. Together, they explore opportunities for fair and integrated solutions to coastal flooding that support coastal livelihoods, preserve archeological assets, and regenerate habitats for culturally significant species.
His work has been funded through various agencies and municipalities, including the Natural Resources Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Dutch Creative Industries Fund, and local municipalities. Kees is editor of the forthcoming book Frameworks for Coastal Adaptation in Landscape Architecture (Routledge, 2023). His research has been published widely, and in various journals, including the Journal of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Research, Kerb, MONU Magazine, New Geographies, and the Journal of Architectural Education.
Kees has practiced landscape architecture at the offices of plantsman Piet Oudolf in the Netherlands and at Terry Guen Design Associates in Chicago, and is the founder of Parallax Landscape. He was shortlisted for the Prix de Rome, Netherlands, in 2014.
Education
MDesS, Harvard Graduate School of Design
MSc, Wageningen University
BSc, Wageningen University
Select publications
Lokman, Kees. “Vacancy as a Laboratory: Design Criteria for Reimagining Social-Ecological Systems on Vacant Urban Lands,” Landscape Research, 42, no. 7, 2017, pp. 728-746.
Lokman, Kees. “Back to the Future: The Spatial Dimension of Water Management,” Int|AR: Interventions and Adaptive Reuse, no.8, pp. 24-34.
Lokman, Kees. “Cyborg Landscapes: Choreographing Resilient Interactions between Infrastructure, Ecology, and Society.” Journal of Landscape Architecture, vol. 12, no. 1, 2017, pp. 60-73.
Lokman, Kees. “Utilizing an Expanded Framework of Urban Metabolism to Envision Future Energy Landscapes”, Landscape Architecture, no. 11, 2016, pp. 54-71.
Lokman, Kees. 2016. Dam[ned] Landscapes: Envisioning Fluid Geographies. Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 70 , no. 1, 2016, pp. 6-12.
Awards and funding
CELA 2019 Excellence in Research and Creative Work Award, Junior Level
Natural Resources Canada: Living Breakwaters—Innovative Adaptation Strategies for Coastal Erosion
Mitacs: Advancing Design for Sea Level Rise in the Fraser River Delta
Creative Industries Fund NL: Multifunctional Dikes in the Vancouver Region
Hampton New Faculty Grant: Visualizing Canada’s Carbon Corridor