For at least a couple of thousand years, people have created gardens or designed landscape parks. Until recently these designers worked in small groups or as individuals. Often they were associated in a master pupil relationship applying a particular design tradition. So the sharing and exchange of knowledge or skill took place personally or in small groups.

Not until the formation of The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 1899 did the profession flourish. It spread to become a national group, the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).

With education to support the professional organisations, standards were set and the practice of landscape architecture became more accountable. Today, graduate landscape architects extend their own briefs beyond project design. Through the integration of technology, modified by an awareness of the potential of its impact, design solutions have become more relevant.

Designers now respond more sensitively to environmental concerns and seek to be innovative in their response to biological integrity.

The interplay between economic, social and political events does not always result in the creation of sustainable developments. In the words of Sylvia Crowe, 'lf life on earth is to survive, we must understand the workings of our own bodies, for we must now assume the responsibility of acting as the brain of evolution and the custodians of the earth.'

In the past, landscape patterns resulted from either economic use of the land or current artistic trends. Now there is even more pressure on the viability of the landscape. To appreciate some of these processes and their effect, it is important to look back over previous centuries to see the way people modified the landscape and how the designers responded.

ENGLAND: 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES

Early in the seventeenth century, two significant events took place. The botanic gardens at Oxford and Edinburgh came into existence. Later, gardeners formed a ‘Company of Gardeners'. Together these provided the resources for people to learn more about plants and to use them experimentally.

Sylvia Crowe comments that the work of George London and Henry Wise at Hampton Court suggests the beginning of the profession. By the turn of the eighteenth century, William Kent changed direction from formal patterned layouts to a freer form of design.

Earlier, the French artist, Claude Lorrain began to express new ideas in his paintings by strategically placing buildings in the landscape. Soon the wealthy English traveller caught the vision of these idealised landscapes. They transposed these by relating their vision of the ancient woodlands to the new emerging philosophies of the eighteen century.

Linked to the debates about the sublime beauty of nature, and the nationwide competition of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, from 1757—1835 (eighty years), landowners planted more than fifty million trees.

The eighteenth century landscape tradition continues to influence both America and Australia. (Raby Castle, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.)

Lancelot ‘Capability' Brown, a pupil of William Kent, became the chief exponent of this new form. He removed many formal gardens to create these new landscape parks. His designs combined the ideas of the artists and writers with a new approach to agriculture. Brown enriched his compositions by creating smooth flowing landforms enfolding shaped water bodies, and planted groups of trees both within and near the boundaries. He skilfully positioned these to capture the distant view, allowing glimpses of the surrounding farmland. Soon the estate took on the appearance of a large carefully composed landscape park.

Brown, as a master designer, had pupils including Thomas White, who practised in Scotland. In turn, one of White's pupils, Thomas Shepherd, came to Australia in the early nineteenth century and became the first Australian landscape designer. This eighteenth century tradition continues to influence both American and Australian landscapes.

Towards the end of Brown's lifetime, another landscape gardener began to take the lead in Britain. Humphrey Repton modified Brown's ideas by introducing a formal layout of decorative plants near the house. He further divided these with gravel paths. Many of the features eliminated by Brown were reintroduced through the writings of both Repton and another garden designer and journalist, John Loudon.

In the late eighteenth century, Repton wrote his theories and principles down in Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening. Other books followed including Observations on the Theory and Practise of Landscape Gardening. Both his books and gardens became the aspirations for many new settlers in Australia.

Meanwhile, Gilbert Meason presented a book in 1828 entitled On Landscape Architecture of Great Painters in Italy. With his description of both the building styles and their placement in Claude Lorrain's paintings, Meason changes 'garden design' into 'landscape architecture.'

This term did not exist at the time of European settlement of Australia.

When Governor Phillip reserved land for parks and gardens, he responded by providing land for production with an 'Acclimatisation Garden'. Then he allocated land for a 'Common'. This soon became known as Phillip's Domain. Cricket matches and horse racing took place on the Domain, now Hyde Park, before any form of organised government existed.

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AUSTRALIA: 19TH CENTURY

In the 19th century in the Sydney papers, advertisements appeared for landscape gardeners. In 1833, Thomas Shepherd invited work for 'the laying out of pleasure grounds and gardens', Mr Armstrong for 'pleasure grounds after the most modern methods in England', Edward Knapp for 'designs made in landscape gardening for the improvement of estates'. Although there appear to be no garden designs by Shepherd, it is probable that he produced an early sketch for the design of Hyde Park.

After Shepherd's death his undelivered lecture notes on 'Landscape Gardening in Australia' were published in 1836. He visualised the Australian landscape as an English scene using Australian plants to compose an eighteenth century landscape. Shepherd's book became the first book on landscape gardening in Australia, at a time when Loudon's most important books were also available in Sydney.

During this time, reaction to the effects of the industrial revolution became more evident. A British Parliamentary Select Committee met in 1833, 'to consider the best means of securing open spaces in the vicinity of populous towns and public walks.' The outcome was the provision of public parks. First, the Secretary of the Home Office instructed Colonel Light in South Australia to provide parks in the layout of Adelaide, a provision confirmed by the planting of 80,000 trees fourteen years later. The free settlers of Melbourne requested land for parks and gardens shortly after the appointment of Superintendent La Trobe. Secondly, an English garden designer, architect, journalist and politician named Joseph Paxton secured the first public funds to construct a publicly owned park on land at Birkenhead near Liverpool. This set in motion the public park movement.

Thomas Church developed a stronger relationship between the outdoor and indoor space. (Aptos, California)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 19TH CENTURY

In the mid nineteenth century in America, an admirer of Loudon, and editor of the journal, Horticulturist, visited Europe. Andrew Downing had the insight to translate Repton's and Loudon's ideas into the American scene. During a mayoral campaign, he advocated the need to create a public park in New York, supporting this as a need to establish a 'Public School of Instruction'. As the champion of this venture, he introduced this new idea to the city. Downing also wrote the first book on landscape design in America.

Later, Fredrick Law Olmsted, another American, visited the park at Birkenhead. The democratic ideals it revealed impressed him, especially the use of the natural environment to help improve the conditions of industrial workers. With Calvert Vaux, Olmsted won the competition for Central Park. Together they translated the ideals of the eighteenth century landscape estate into their work in America. At this time, Olmsted also began to use the title 'landscape architect'.

During his long life, he practised extensively. As the cities grew so the need to establish large parks for recreation became apparent. Olmsted undertook a range of commissions including the Boston park system, Stanford University campus and many cemeteries. Through his design in the late nineteenth century for the Chicago Exhibition, and participation in the City Beautiful movement, his influence spread to Australia. Walter Burley Griffin, who grew up in Chicago, became aware of Olmsted's work, which later influenced his design for Canberra. Olmsted also helped influence the reservation of areas of outstanding natural beauty to be owned by the public.

AUSTRALIA: 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Many designers existed in Australia during the nineteenth century. Edward La Trobe Bateman helped design the Systems Garden at the University of Melbourne. William Guilfoyle redesigned the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and the gardens associated with the Victorian Parliament House in 1888. William Sangster designed 'Como' and helped with 'Stonnington'. These were large and significant gardens.

Through the writings and works of two English designers, William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, a new design philosophy evolved in both America and Australia. Jekyll worked in a professional capacity carrying out over three hundred commissions. Many people acknowledge Jekyll's influence, especially Beatrix Farrand of Dumbarton Oaks and three Australians, Olive Mellor, Millie Gibson and Edna Walling.

Melbourne's Burnley Gardens under Charles Bogue Luffman stimulated an interest in design. As principal, he enrolled women students at the turn of the century. With Jekyll's example, many women entered the design profession. Ina Higgins became one of the first. She wrote four books and practised as a designer. Within the next generation, Mellor, Gibson and Walling engaged in this activity.

Papers and debates increased in the run up to Federation. Luffman participated in a conference organised to coincide with the first meeting of the Commonwealth Parliament in Melbourne. His paper 'The Agricultural, Horticultural and Sylvan Features of a Federal Capital', showed the importance of a created landscape setting. Two years later Luffman wrote The Principles of Gardening for Australia. This book set the scene for garden design to enter a more professional arena.

In 1903, Luffman engaged in a public debate with Walter Butler, a distinguished architect in Melbourne. Butler's paper dealt with the need for unity to exist between the house and garden, using a geometrical layout. Luffman designed in both a formal and informal way. For the first time he extended the criteria to include architecture, position, natural and financial resources.

As an architect, Butler had become part of the movement reinforced by Reginald Bloomfield's book The Formal Garden in England published in 1892. Bloomfield sought to re-establish the architectural organisation of the garden. He rejected what the horticultural journalist wrote about design. The two 'Parliamentary Gardens' in Canberra, created for both the Senate and the House of Representatives, are evidence of this debate.

Four years earlier, the American Society for Landscape Architects came into being. The Graduate School of Design followed the next year, setting the scene for the profession to grow rapidly. Within a decade the journal Landscape Architecture appeared. By 1916 both the U.S. Forest and National Park Services employed landscape architects for site assessment, planning, design and landscape architecture.

At this time, many large gardens existed in Australia, providing a basis for student assessment. As Luffman redesigned Burnley Gardens, he set the agenda for others to follow. Three students who migrated from Britain as young women undertook the course. They had undoubtedly read Jekyll's books and perhaps visited some of her gardens. Edna Walling and Olive Mellor worked in design and construction, retaining a master pupil relationship. Millie Gibson sought to extend her professional career by continuing her education. This led her to explore the opportunities available and work towards developing landscape architecture in Australia.

On graduation in 1917, Gibson worked in Burley Griffin's Melbourne office during Griffin's time, as the Director of Design and Construction in Canberra. Then she returned to Burnley to teach design and organise the part-time horticultural course. To broaden her own expertise, she learnt to draft plans and develop her design skills. Four years later, Gibson returned to England to join the London office of Milner, Son and White as a pupil apprentice. This firm included a father and son association for three generations.

Not only did Gibson learn about garden design, but also had the opportunity to visit gardens in Europe. A few years later, Sylvia Crowe undertook a similar apprenticeship. More than twenty years later, Gibson gave John Stevens, who joined her in the late forties, a schedule of site assessment from this office.

On her return to Australia in 1924, Gibson joined the Argus and the Australasian. During twenty two years as a journalist, she had a considerable influence on design. Aware of the happenings in Sydney, Gibson would have read Professor Waterhouse's article ‘Gardening as an Interpretative Art' in the 1926 issue of Home. Through her work in Griffin's office, she continued to maintain her interest in Canberra. Undoubtedly she knew about Rex Hazelwood's design for the Senate Parliamentary Rose Gardens. Other designers in the twenties and thirties included Paul Sorensen and Jocelyn Brown from New South Wales.

THE MID 20TH CENTURY

As an outgoing person, Gibson retained many friendships from her time in London. She would have known of the formation of the British Association of Garden Architects in 1929. One year later, a name change took place to Institute of Landscape Architects (ILA). From the time of the formation of ASLA, it took a further thirty years for the British Institute to come into existence. Formed in 1948, The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) provided a forum for debate and the presentation of professional papers. Forty years later, ILA became the Landscape Institute, to enable landscape scientists and managers to join. The Australian Institute became a corporate body more than sixty years after ASLA, and some twenty years after IFLA.

Meanwhile, Gibson built up a substantial reputation as a designer and teacher. She pioneered the design of large industrial and commercial sites with leading architects and began the first professional practice. In the late forties, Gibson employed Malcolm Munroe to draft her plans. Then she became associated with John Stevens working on large industrial sites.

Also in the late forties, Brenda Colvin focused on new opportunities with her book written in 1948, Land and Landscape. This helped to set the scene for landscape architects to enter a new era. In the same way as Jekyll had provided a theoretical base for her ideas, Sylvia Crowe further extended the theory associated with the practice of landscape architecture through her writings from 1956-1966.

In the fifties, Gibson, always alert to her students' need to continue their education in design, encouraged them to undertake courses overseas. She asked King's College, Durham University to take Burnley students. Meanwhile Professor Waterhouse encouraged Richard Clough to study at University College, London. On the return to Australia of the first student to study at King's, Erica Ball designed the 1956 Olympic Games village in Melbourne.

In America, designers were becoming more aware of the artistic possibilities of space composition and their social responsibility for others. A change of attitude to the traditional forms of design took place. Two distinct directions emerged as a more creative and functional approach to design. This involved a search for landscape and garden forms to complement new art forms and architecture. Designers also showed an increasing concern for the social needs of people and the community. By the late thirties the first steps to incorporate an interdisciplinary approach appeared in landscape architecture. This resulted in the movement towards regional planning and environmental design.

The proponents were mostly in California and included Thomas Church, Lawrence Halprin, Garret Eckbo, Robert Royston and others. Church, Eckbo and Royston introduced exciting and fluid shapes into their designs. Two plan forms developed as either symmetrical or asymmetrical designs. These were based on low maintenance design, with a simpler use of plant materials, especially natives and those acclimatised to California. A stronger relationship developed between the outdoor and indoor space, so the planning became one process, often becoming more family oriented.

Palo Alto Apartments, designed by Robert Royston, one of the Californian proponents of the move towards regional planning and environmental design in the late 1930s.

Halprin engaged in environmental design, particularly in the urban context, redesigned city streets, transportation systems and land use. His book Cities, published in 1963, reveals the extent of Halprin's involvement in urban design. The realm of landscape architecture extended' into environmental planning and conservation; while in England, landscape architects engaged in works of greater scale and complexity, especially in the new towns. Ian McHarg's book Design with Nature, published six years later, set the scene for greater awareness of the underlying structure to the landscape.

THE LATE 20TH CENTURY IN AUSTRALIA

In Australia, the profession developed spasmodically. First in the fifties, John Oldham from Western Australia and Mervyn Davis from Victoria became individual members of the International Federation, followed by formal moves to establish a professional body. The first informal meeting took place in Canberra during the Congress of the Royal Australian Institute of Planning in November 1963. Within three years the name Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) became accepted and the body incorporated in 1970.

Education commenced in 1961 with a series of extension courses conducted by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Three years later, a two-year part time post-graduate course at the University of New South Wales became viable. The first undergraduate courses commenced in 1975 at the University of NSW and Canberra College of Advanced Education. The Queensland Institute of Technology followed a few years later. Other courses in Tasmania and Melbourne were established and more recently those in Perth and Adelaide.

The Institute published its first Quarterly Bulletin in June 1968 with an article from the president, Professor Peter Spooner. From 1978, it became Landscape Australia, then the following year Ralph Neale took over the name and produced a better quality journal. This provided a forum for the Institute to present itself to other professional organisations.

Richard Clough offered his library of landscape books to the University of Canberra in 1975. This enabled the library to set up a special collection of rare and current books on landscape design, now called the Clough Collection. A valuable cross section of books is available in this collection for research.

The scale of the commissions increased. Richard Clough worked in Canberra with the National Capital Development Commission from its inception in 1958. He introduced and integrated individual site design into a larger landscape setting. Professor Spooner undertook the landscape design of the Warringah Newcastle Expressway. Bruce Mackenzie engaged in a wide range of work in Sydney and at overseas Australian Embassies, giving his designs a distinctly Australian character. Commissions for the landscape design associated with national buildings became common. Parliament House became one of the largest landscape contracts to be undertaken in the late eighties.

The profession grew from five landscape architects in the early sixties to just under a thousand now. From the time graduate courses were introduced in the mid seventies, the numbers increased each year, then multiplied with each output of graduates. Early in the life of the Institute the promotion of education became a priority. The development of the profession can be measured by the co-hosting of the twentieth world congress by IFLA and AILA in Canberra during 1982.

Within twelve years, the Institute inaugurated the National Project Awards programme, the first award for 'Design Excellence in Landscape Architecture' being awarded to the National Capital Development Commission for the Lake Burley Griffin Parkland Scheme.

Two people who had made an outstanding contribution to the development of the profession on the international scene, Dame Sylvia Crowe and Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, were presented jointly with the 'Award of Landscape Architecture' in 1990. Eleven years earlier, Crowe accepted an Honorary Fellowship of the AILA in recognition of her contribution to the Australian Institute.

Parliament House, Canberra, became one of the largest landscape projects undertaken in the late 1980s.

WHAT NEXT?

Today, the profession is able to engage in a more forthright manner with the various lobby groups concerned about design and the environment. This increase in profile has led to a need to re-examine the role of the landscape architect. In the seventies, ASLA, the largest body of landscape architects in the world, undertook this reassessment. It soon became apparent that as the scale and variety of projects increased, a critical review had become necessary. The Fein report suggested that ‘traditional work should continue and the professional boundaries not be extended to include other disciplines.' Even though the findings indicated a need to remain within a recognised skill base and code of conduct, the need existed for interdisciplinary teams to operate. This move has taken place, allowing the blending of various talents, but landscape architects still need to build on their traditional skills. Perhaps this is the new direction for the profession?

A review of the history of the last three centuries reveals similarities between the landscape developments in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Both were based on the need for an economic return on land use, but the management strategies were different. Today, there are a multitude of uses, so the challenge is greater.

The landscape is subject to increasing pressures from greater public access. So the need to review the underlying ethical issues associated with land use and its redevelopment has become urgent. The boundaries of these activities do need to be redefined to ensure the solutions offered are appropriate.

Australians interact with the landscape throughout the year. This suggests that many inherited traditions from the northern hemisphere need reassessment. As Australia is a dry continent with extremes of climate and diverse associations of vegetation, a more sensitive approach is still to emerge. With increased community concern and greater use of the open areas, the fragility of the landscape needs to be a warning to all who practise in it. Today, the challenge is to be more aware of the consequences of change. As designers you have responsibility for the future well-being of the landscape. With the accumulation of knowledge and experience of previous designers, you are m a position to evaluate what you are doing.

This leads to a question for you to ponder: 'What ideas and values will you use to shape the landscape during the next century?'

Perhaps Sylvia Crowe's remarks are even more relevant for the twenty first century?

‘If life on earth is to survive, we must understand the workings of our own bodies, for we must now assume the responsibility of acting as the brain of evolution and the custodians of the earth.’

* Crowe, S. & Mitchell, M., 1988, The Pattern of Landscape, Packa

No photography attribution has been given
as none were documented in the original article