Zaš Brezar (b. 1984, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Slovenia) is founder and editor-in-chief of Landezine. Educated as a landscape architect (University of Ljubljana), he spent several years in practice, later establishing Landezine in 2009. He is focused on the production of space, specifically mapping, tracing and interpreting the course of landscape architecture and questioning its role in society and politics of public space.
An essay on how we push animals into playing roles — from fables and films to renders of biodiversity and art — tracing how these projections tame, abstract, or estrange, and how synurbists and artists unsettle the human–animal divide.
Exploring the interplay between low-res design and the transience of landscapes, this essay foregrounds the notion of resolution, enquiring about a dynamic interaction with landscapes in flux.
The 4th Symposium of the Istituto di Studi Urbani e del Paesaggio (ISUP), titled Landscape As Architecture, took place in Mendrisio, Switzerland, from November 13 to 15, 2024. Previous editions in the series explored themes of Climate Urbanism, Scale, and Density. Out of over 250 submissions, the curators, Jonathan Sergison, João Nunes, and João Gomes […]
As we confront the growing ecological crisis, it becomes increasingly difficult to argue that harmonious aesthetics, designed primarily for pleasure and ease, are always the most effective mode of expression. Perhaps there is space to question whether ecological efforts demand a different aesthetic attitude, one less fixated on traditional notions of balance and spatial conformity and more open to dissensus and confrontation.
Gary Hilderbrand has been teaching at Harvard Graduate School of Design since 1990 and is currently the Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. He is also the founding principal of Reed Hilderbrand, a leading landscape architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The firm was established in the […]
Charles Birnbaum is the CEO and founder of TCLF—The Cultural Landscape Foundation. In his work, he is a fearless advocate and activist for significant American landscape architecture sites. He was honored as a 2020 LILA Honour Award Winner for initiating and developing TCLF for over 25 years with an “innovative vision, executed with great precision, […]
Awarded the prestigious 2023-2024 International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens, the Espacio Escultórico in Pedregal de San Ángel, Mexico City, is celebrated for its blend of art, nature, and history. This accolade, orchestrated by the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, shines a spotlight on spaces that embody extraordinary qualities of creativity, historical depth, and natural particularities. […]
In this interview, Zaš Brezar talks to Prof. Dr. Lisa Diedrich, the winner of LILA 2023 Honour Award. She speaks about her professional development throughout the years and specifically about being a ‘straddler’ between professional practice and academia. She references several books and projects that inspire her as a landscape architect, architect, journalist and especially […]
We continue with French philosopher Michel Foucault. In his 1967 speech to an architecture audience, he introduced the concept of “heterotopia”. It was published in 1984 as an essay, Des Espaces Autres (Of Other Spaces), and it deals with the nature of space and its relation to society. Heterotopias are unique spatial entities that challenge conventional notions of space and compel reflection on the social, cultural, and ideological matters of our world.
Günther Vogt probably needs no introduction in our profession; he has been an important practitioner for a couple of decades now, appreciated globally for his rich, non-linear and adventurous design approach. Initially, his education was more in the direction of botany. He later shifted to landscape architecture by studying in Rapperswil, Switzerland. After his study […]
Sarah Cowles of Ruderal presents their design for the Betania Garden near Tbilisi, Georgia, which was awarded LILA 2023 Special Mention in the Garden category. We start the discussion with an update on Arsenal Oasis, another LILA-winning project from 2021 (See the presentation). For the Betania Garden, the LILA 2023 jury wrote: At first glance, […]
The production of landscape architecture projects has been in recent years outstanding, and our entire professional community has much to be proud of. But as always, there is a flip side; like in architecture or any design discipline of the globalised and speeding-up world, we are faced with a sea of sameness. Too many buildings […]
Urban biodiversity? Yes, please! Nevertheless … … Due to the transitional phase of our understanding of nature in the light of the Anthropocene, there are still some important notions, contradictions and misunderstandings that need to be addressed. To do so, we will operate with terms like nature, ecology, biodiversity, landscape, and aesthetics, and we’ll focus […]
»Paradigm shift« has been, for at least a decade now, one of the most used phrases in landscape architecture. We use it mainly to address the need to focus on design with natural processes in mind. This is important as it concerns our core values, attitude towards nature, the understanding of natural processes and the […]
Climate activists group Extinction Rebellion (XR) sabotaged multiple golf courses around Spain. Spain is currently facing a severe drought while the golf courses are still being irrigated. According to XR, Spanish golf courses use more water than Madrid and Barcelona together. They planted some shrubs and perennials directly into the golf course and set a […]
The AI services embedded in tools for creative profiles are developing so rapidly that this article will definitely be outdated by 6 pm tomorrow. Last year we featured a piece on Midjourney and similar platforms, and it already reads like Grandpas discussing ‘the internets’ back in the 90s. I suppose enchantment by civilisation’s technological advances […]
We are thrilled to share with you the interview with LILA 2022 Honour Award winner Gilles Clément. The interview was conducted in Paris in November 2022 by Zaš Brezar and Joost Emmerik. The editors wrote in the award statement: Gilles Clément (1943) is a French landscape architect or better ‘paysagiste’, having a more garden design-related […]
We are focusing on one of the most influential landscape architecture platforms; LAE – Landscape Architecture Europe. For nearly 20 years, the triennial book has been bringing a complex multilayered reflection on the most interesting recent European projects. Prof. Dr. Dipl. -Ing. Lisa Diedrich presents the last edition titled Second Glance. She also presents the editorial […]
Rotterdam Rooftop Days (Rotterdamse Dakendagen) is an annual festival that promotes rooftop living and emphasises the potential of roofs in mitigating issues of public space, empowering communities, reducing urban heat, increasing urban biodiversity, urban food production etc. It features Knowledge Day, Rotterdam Rooftop Walk, various cultural events and, most importantly, establishes a network of permanently […]
Zaš Brezar on AI and the design process in the landscape architecture profession.
Dr. Stephan Brenneisen from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences has been researching urban biodiversity and roofs for over 25 years. In a video presentation, he talks about his findings. We asked him specifically to speak about what to keep in mind when designing biodiverse roofs. What can landscape architects learn from his extensive experience, […]
In this essay, Zaš Brezar writes about the role of urban roofs in our collective memory. Illustrating the meaning of roofs through a selection of cultural references from films and music. The article is a part of Living Roofs focus on Landezine that is going on in October and November 2022.
Jenny Osuldsen is one of the directors at Snøhetta, a multidisciplinary office that works between architecture, landscape and graphic design. The LILA Honour Award 2021 celebrates Snøhetta for its trans-disciplinary approach to the design process and, specifically, the ability to merge thinking about landscape and architecture. The results are often precious urban moments that host […]
SURFACEDESIGN
Material Landscapes
James A. Lord, Roderick Wyllie, Geoff di Girolamo; foreword by Alan Maskin; conversation with Anita Berrizbeitia
Landscape architects know that simply following the rules and changing spaces according to formulas and recipes is not enough to design significant landscapes, let alone change people’s perceptions of a landscape. Life is messy, and we have to invent and update rules repeatedly. This book comprises little secrets and invaluable experiences written by fifty experienced […]
Susana Rojas Saviñón and Hortense Blanchard are the driving forces behind Estudio Ome, a young 5-member landscape architecture practice based out of Mexico City. Their first realized project Forest Garden immediately received LILA in the garden category. Besides that, we could easily say that Ome is LILA’s young-talent discovery of 2021. We really look forward […]
Every landscape architect should be well-aware of the role of forests both in environmental and social sense. Forests are dark and seem wild, so clearings feel liberating and secure. Visibility is low which makes forest misterious or even terrifying. One can get lost pretty quickly, so paths are of paramount importance. For landscape architects forests may be attractive as there are more tools for playing with the natural light and volumes.
João Nunes is the general coordinator of PROAP, an internationally recognized landscape architecture firm with offices in Portugal, Italy and Angola. In the video, Nunes describes the development of PROAP in the past 25 years and then presents their LILA 2021 winning project: Quays of the River Schelde in Antwerp. The project won (ex-aequo) the […]
Arsenal Oasis is a unique project located in Tbilisi Georgia. It was designed for the Tbilisi Architecture Biennale by an urban design and research studio Ruderal. In this video, the designer Sarah Cowles explains the forces and circumstances that shaped the project. The LILA 2021 jury wrote: Arsenal Oasis is an experimental project that deals […]
I recently had a wonderful opportunity to talk to Signe Nielsen of MNLA about the many challenges and joys of designing the landscape for Little Island – an entirely constructed landscape that opened less than a month ago in NYC. We will soon publish more on the project, but first, you are kindly invited to […]
Today, 23 April, Robin Winogrond (Studio Vulkan), Martin Rein-Cano (Topotek 1) and Zaš Brezar (Landezine) were supposed to meet for a public discussion in Berlin. For the obvious reasons, the event was postponed. Instead, we are releasing this new podcast, where Zaš Brezar and Martin Rein-Cano are discussing the effects of Coronavirus pandemic on work […]
Today, 23 April, Robin Winogrond (Studio Vulkan), Martin Rein-Cano (Topotek 1) and Zaš Brezar (Landezine) were supposed to meet for a public discussion in Berlin. For the obvious reasons, the event was postponed. Instead, we are releasing this interview from July 2019 and also a new podcast with Martin Rein-Cano on the effects of Coronavirus […]
Recorded in Amsterdam in November of 2018.
Liam Young is together with Kate Davies running the Unknown Fields project. They travel around the world and explore landscapes behind objects we used on a daily basis: materials for our phones, fabrics for clothes, lithium for batteries … We caught Liam in Ljubljana, where he was narrating Unknown Fields film live.
Landezine visited Karres+Brands in their new gorgeous studio in Hilversum, Netherlands on November 2nd, 2018. You can see their projects on Landezine or on their homepage.
main image: © Nación Rotonda
In the past decade or two, roundabouts have become a wide-spread phenomenon in Europe, bringing with them a series of issues, above all related to their number, location, and the ornamental structures placed in their centres.
Martin Rein-Cano is founder of a Berlin based landscape architecture practice Topotek 1. Their Superkilen project was recently awarded with Aga Khan Award.
