The Landscape Institute (LI) is a UK based professional body for the landscape profession. Its membership includes landscape architects, urban designers, landscape planners, landscape scientists and landscape managers. The LI also has a category for academic members. Founded in 1929-30 as the Institute of Landscape Architects (ILA), it was granted a royal charter in 1997. In the words of its longest serving president, Geoffrey Jellicoe, “It is only in the present century that the collective landscape has emerged as a social necessity. We are promoting a landscape art on a scale never conceived of in history.” The LI seeks to promote landscape architecture and to regulate the landscape profession with a code of conduct that members must abide by. The LI had ‘over 900’ members at its fortieth birthday (in 1969) and by 1978 had over 1,500 members. In 2019 the total membership of the LI was 5,613. In 2025 this increased to over 6,000. The Landscape Institute royal charter was granted in 1997 and revised in 2008 and 2016. Its objects and purposes are specified as follows (in Clause 5. (1): ‘The objects and purposes for which the Institute is hereby constituted are to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the benefit of the public by promoting the arts and sciences of Landscape Architecture (as such expression is hereinafter defined) and its several applications and for that purpose to foster and encourage the dissemination of knowledge relating to Landscape Architecture and the promotion of research and education therein, and in particular to establish, uphold and advance the standards of education, qualification, competence and conduct of those who practice Landscape Architecture as a profession, and to determine standards and criteria for education, training and experience.’ The Landscape Institute publishes the journal Landscape (formerly Landscape Design), and is a member of the International Federation of Landscape Architects.
Development of the landscape profession in the UK The growth of landscape architecture has been led by its membership and supported by its secretariat and by government legislation since the 1940s, The relevant legislation included the New Towns Act (1946) which led to a requirement for special attention to the ‘landscape treatment’ of New Towns, and thus to the first salaried jobs for landscape architects in the public service. The European Environmental Impact Assessment Directive EIA Directive (85/337/EEC) (1985) led new jobs in preparing environmental impact assessments. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the public sector (particularly local authorities) was the largest employer of landscape architects, with a minority working in private practice. In the 21st century, and especially following public spending reforms post-2009, a greater majority of landscape architects are employed in the private sector.
History of the term ‘landscape architecture’ ‘Landscape architecture’ is a modern name for an ancient art. The development of the ancient art is analysed by Geoffrey Jellicoe, in The Landscape of Man, and by Norman T. Newton in Design on the land. Jellicoe describes the cave paintings of Lascaux c30,000 BC as the ‘First Landscapes consciously conceived by man’. Newton, defines ‘landscape architecture’ as the art ‘of arranging land, together with the spaces and objects upon it, for safe, efficient, healthful, pleasant human use’ and writes that ‘the ancient art became a new profession officially, when in 1863 the title Landscape Architect was first used by the state-appointed Board of Central Park Commissioners in New York City. It had been employed unofficially by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux beginning in 1858’. Though its use as a professional title is American, the origin of the term ‘landscape architect’ is European. Charles Waldheim identifies two possible nineteenth century origins: in France and in the UK. The possible French origin comes from Jean-Marie Morel. He was an ‘architect, engineer, and garden designer’ and he ‘is credited with the formulation ‘’architecte-paysagiste’’’. This possibility was identified in the late nineteenth century and researched by Disponzio. The possible UK origin was identified in 1982 and researched by Nina Antonetti in 2012. She traces the term ‘landscape architecture’ to Meason and its use as professional title to William Andrews Nesfield. Meason's book was published in 1828 and deals with the relationship between buildings and their settings. John Claudius Loudon welcomed the new term 'landscape architect' and used it in the Gardeners Magazine, which he edited, and in two of the encyclopedias he published: the Encyclopedia of Gardening (from the 1835 edition onwards) and the Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm, Villa Architecture (1838). Loudon also used it in the title of his 1840 book: The landscape gardening and landscape architecture of the late Humphry Repton, esq. The publicity given to the term ‘landscape architecture’ by Loudon led to the term ‘landscape architect’ used by some British garden designers from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The most notable example is its use in 1849 by William Andrews Nesfield. Nesfield described himself as a landscape architect on his submitted plan for the garden of Britain's most famous residence, Buckingham Palace. UK use of the term ‘landscape architect’ (‘garden designer’) tailed off towards the end of the nineteenth century. It was Olmsted's long and brilliant career that led to it becoming famous and being associated with public projects: for parks, greenways, open space systems and urban design. His most famous projects were Central Park in New York and the Emerald Necklace of green space in Boston. This was the sense in which ‘landscape architecture’ returned to the UK and was adopted by the Landscape Institute, as described below.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
