Landskiphilia – our affective preferences for landscape patterns

This paper discusses why psychological and/or behavioural responses to landscape must be innate for species survival. While it does not present new empirical data, the discussion is based on neuroscientific work that demonstrated intrinsic responses to landscape stimuli exist. It reflects on the agents that potentially elicit human’s affective preferences for defined spaces, primal patterns, and compositions in the landscape, arguing for the significance of spatial and environmental perception to survival and presenting this in a set of ‘landskiphilia’ hypotheses. With the renewed understanding of how responses to landscape stimuli evolve, the reading of theoretical foundations of garden and landscape design through this new lens can open new and/or specific characteristics of landscape for hypotheses and research. The resulting nuanced understanding of the effects of landscape on psychology, along with the sciences and engineering for sustainability and biodiversity, can better inform the building of liveable resilient cities.