Fuller Initiative Land Lab:
2022–2024
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 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 Fuller Initiative Land Lab was awarded the Top Prize in the 2024 Design Futurist Competition by Pacific Horticultural
Michael Geffel, Lab Director & Design Principal / Abby Pierce, Maintenance Artist-in-Residence / Masayo Simon, Counter Archivist / Christopher Daradics, Experience Designer / David Buckley Borden, Fuller Initiative Design Fellow / Lisa Schonberg, Sound Artist-in-Residence / Cal Penkauskus, Ecologist / Ian Vierck, Fabrication Lead / Katie Sinclair, Field Team Lead / Luke Rayborn, Mowing Contractor Field Assistants | Janessa Beltran / Miriel Orhai / Nicole Konicke / Tayler Uesato / Tellez Santaella / Evan Kwiecien / McKenna O’Neill / Tressa Cummings / Sarah Goldstein / Natalia Dorkina / Jenna Witzleben / Izzy Ospina Rodriguez / Carolyn Corl / Nick SundThe work of the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes is only possible thanks to the generous support of Mort and Sue Fuller (UO Journalism, Class of 1971).