[Sub]stance gives voice to a new generation of young designers emerging from the University of Pennsylvania's famous landscape architecture program. The mission of [Sub]stance is to scope some of the fundamental issues impacting upon the global landscape of the 21st century. It is a platform for imaginative and critical discourse and design speculation about the potential role that landscape architecture can have in understanding and changing the world we have created for ourselves. In its broadest sense the question asked by [Sub]stance is 'How are designers (in particular landscape architects) engaging with issues of ecology, economy, society and aesthetics in relation to the landscape of the 21st century' The University of Pennsylvania's department of Landscape Architecture has a rich tradition of innovation and leadership in landscape architecture and regional planning. [Sub]stance gives voice to a new generation of young designers. [Sub]stance is a platform for speculations, questions and provocations. Its mission is to become a respected source for inspiration in the field of landscape architecture and related disciplines and professions. In the inaugural issue we seek "Landscapes of Substance," areas that help us better understand a world that has by now been thoroughly reconstructed by human agency. Not necessarily limited to the physical landscape some of the arguments delve into the thought processes that designers have in understanding our world. Illustrated throughout
