Archiving the Memories of Landscape Architecture: The Network of European Landscape Architecture Archives (NELA)

Luca Csepely-Knorr, Manchester School of Architecture

Michael Brown: Proposed landscaping for the Winstanley Road Estate, Battersea, London. 1964. © Museum of English Rural Life (Landscape Institute Library and Archive), University of Reading, UK

Documents on landscape architects (as well as plans, papers, models and images related to projects, from small scale elements of equipment via courtyards and gardens to large representative parks and entire landscapes) are primary sources of the discipline’s history. This material is collected, researched and curated in several archives throughout Europe. Although the collections are rich and crucial in understanding the development of the built environment, these archives are often undervalued and there is a lack of awareness of their holdings.

René Pechère: Plan for the Garden of the Cité administrative de l’État, Brussels. Preliminary sketch in the style of Paul Klee. Undated drawing [1956] © CIVA Landscape Architecture Archives, Brussels, Belgium

As Lilli Lička and Ulrike Krippner argued, landscape architecture has hitherto lacked a sense of historical continuity directed toward the future. The profession’s historical narrative is particularly sketchy when it comes to more recent designs, works, and practitioners. John Dixon Hunt stressed that both landscape architects and historians of landscape need to understand ‘the conceptual principles of [the] profession’. Archives are playing a key role in developing this understanding through collecting, preserving, curating and teaching, as well as a fundamental role in the preservation and restoration of landscape architectural heritage.

International collaboration in the field of landscape architecture is particularly relevant. Malene Hauxner, writing about ‘icons on the move’, has demonstrated how styles, trends and theoretical ideas in Europe are spread. As well as the recognition of cross-border stylistic and theoretical influences, the regional understanding of landscape architecture and particularly the changing political landscape and borders in Europe in the 20th century highlight the need for international research and collaboration.

Allain Provost: East Side Park, Birmingham, competition plan and sections, 2005 © Allain Provost Collection, École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage, Versailles-Marseille, France

Social and physiographic factors do not just operate locally, and–in commercial terms–national borders have long since ceased to act as a constraint: competitions are put out to tender right across the EU, and commissions are awarded to international contractors. The national and international exchange between archives thus promotes a deep and comprehensive understanding of European landscape architecture, enabling information to be networked and new knowledge generated.

In 2019 the Network of European Landscape Architecture Archives (NELA) was founded to raise awareness of the invaluable records relating to the history of the built environment through an international collaboration between archives, researchers and educators. It built on previous symposiums and publications that discussed the extent of various collections as well as publishing approaches in various countries, and aims to build a common platform to share knowledge. One of NELA’s key concerns is to facilitate the work of the archives through an exchange of knowhow: indeed, we are convinced that this exchange will release untapped potential for joint research projects at the European level. The network will develop a set of standards, link the individual holdings, and raise their profile in the public eye. Plans are under way to implement cooperative programmes of teaching and research as well as joint publications and exhibitions.

Collaborating Archives and Institutions:

ANLA, Ås, Norway

ASLA, Rapperswil, Switzerland

CIVA Landscape Architecture Archives, Brussels, Belgium

LArchiv, BOKU Vienna

Museum of English Rural Life (Landscape Institute Library and Archive), University of Reading, UK

Special Collections, Wageningen University & Research – Library

École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage, Versailles-Marseille, France

Manchester School of Architecture, UK

Slovak University of Agriculture, Nitra, Slovakia

Szent Istvan University, Budapest, Hungary

Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany