HKU Division of Landscape Architecture
Spring 2023 Public Lecture Series
“ASSEMBLING FUTURES”
Landscape as Process
Lecture Abstract
The changeability of landscape-architecture projects indicates an essential aspect of the discipline. The fact that the “end product” of landscape architecture ultimately is only the beginning of an ongoing process of development may represent one of the most radical differences to architecture. A landscape architect is not only able to design space, but also embed it in time. However, the temporal difference between these two areas, both of which are symbolized by the professional title of a landscape architect, will not only become visible at the end of a project, but is already inscribed into it at the very beginning. With regard to design, architecture tends to use the term of “context” to refer to the urban context, and sometimes also the cultural and historical one, which basically limits its temporal horizon to a mere few years, centuries and, at most, millennia. Landscape architecture, on the other hand, can also refer to the natural-historical context, with the associated disciplines of biology and geology causing the time horizon to grow quite immensely: from millennia to millions of years. This increased awareness of time as a determining factor on the part of landscape architecture perhaps occasionally also causes time to become the very content of the design: it is all about the design of processes. However, the reverse of this turn of events is also important: the process of design. This, too, takes time. By nature, landscape architecture is a slow discipline. And the discovery of slowness requires not only special attention, but above all a patient eye on the part of an observer.
About the Speaker
Günther Vogt founded Vogt Landscape Architects in 2000 with offices in Zurich, London and Berlin. He has been a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) since 2005 and was chairman of the Network City and Landscape (NSL) from 2007 to 2011. VOGT Landschaftsarchitekten emerged from the office partnership with Dieter Kienast in 2000. With projects such as the Tate Modern in London, Allianz Arena in Munich, or the Masoala Rainforest Hall at the Zurich Zoo, the firm has achieved international recognition. In 2010, VOGT Case Studio opened in Zurich, serving as a platform for research and exhibitions. In 2012, he held a visiting professorship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for one semester.
The lecture is open to the general public.
Please visit “Assembling Futures” for further information on the Public Lecture Series.