Cultural Landscapes and the Built Environment

Cultural geographers use the concept of the cultural landscape to describe the visible imprint that a human group leaves on its natural surroundings through sustained occupation and use. The concept was formalized by Carl Sauer of the Berkeley School in his influential 1925 essay "The Morphology of Landscape," which argued that "the cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a culture group," and that reading these landscapes carefully, their field patterns, building styles, and land use, reveals the values, technologies, and history of the people who shaped them. This approach shifted geography away from environmental determinism and toward the study of culture as an active force shaping the physical world, and it remains foundational to how cultural and human geographers approach landscapes today.