Landscape Architecture

The terminology and the definition of landscape architecture have changed. Still in constant evolution, one can place it under planning disciplines. Transforming and adapting to different fields and necessities, both human and environmental. It is also a learning discipline, where operators have to deal with every possible issue involved in the process – including the unforeseeable – determined by the space one works with. Usually one means the outside space, referring to natural processes, when one talks about landscape architecture. An open space. Open towards the sky and open towards the land. In an vertical and horizontal way. One can therefore also speak of two main directions. It depends, in which space and position of space we are, we are dealing with and we are talking about.

2D space. A flat space. Constructed by 2 vectors. Visible from above. It describes the space you are working with, when you are drawing a ground plan. Your tools are lines, geometric forms, areas, textures, structures, colours, text, numbers, measures, special characters and much more.

3D space. The space which opens up a room with 3 vectors. It is easy to define this architectural space in relation to a building, as the area which surrounds it.

This conception of landscape architecture, as a planning discipline of its own, emerged during the early 19th century. Whereas previously such tasks were solved by architects. For this reason, landscape architecture was always bound with architecture itself and its own understanding of space in correlation to buildings, as the space in-between.

The perception of landscape architectural space. This space can be perceived as a space constructed around a perceiving subject. One could describe it as a stage. A horizontal space with it's special character. When we move, a whole wall morphs into a concave area, with which we engage.

Space is always around us, regardless of being inside or outside a building. Inside or outside the landscape architectural space. To reflect, what architecture and landscape architecture brings together, one needs to understand, what environment means. For a landscape architect in practice it always points towards an ecological field, where one has to deal with issues of protection, for example. For an architect environment can mean this as well, but, also the thought can bring us to a combination, where space is placed. The environment is the space, where everything happens and both situations of space, the landscape architectonic and the architectonic space are part of. Here and to make it a bit easier for the understanding and for the usage of the terminologies in everyday life, landscape architectural space can somehow stand as a synonym for the 'outside' and architectural space as a synonym for the 'inside'. To just give a simple technical explanation of this: It means, because buildings are always wrapped in walls, a steel skeleton and what makes it architecture, is the dimension in the vertical direction. The landscape architectonic space is recognisable by it's content of green in every possible way. But this looks for nowadays architecture like a very limited definition. So yes, this, the content of green, additional it's natural soil ground, which is characterised by it's depth of soil. The dimension of soil in a negative vertical direction, towards the inner earth. Other organic materials, living substances, water, plants ... are part of the landscape architectural space. According to this another important factor of measuring space and telling, if you are inside an landscape architectonic or architectonic space can be the altitude.