Archiving Landscape: A European Network to Address the Current Challenges Facing Landscape Architecture Archives

Abstract

Each open space exists within a historical continuity on which decisions about its future development should be based. Landscape architecture archives are the basis for a deeper understanding of the history of designed open spaces and help historians and landscape architects to understand the design concepts and genesis of open spaces. In practice, there is still little awareness of the importance of adequate historical research as a foundation for making appropriate future decisions in the face of global challenges. The fragile character of designed landscapes, the role of vegetation and the scale of projects and plans present archives with specific challenges. To meet these challenges, expertise from different disciplines is required. Historians, art historians, archivists and landscape architects share their experience on these topics in the Network of European Landscape Architecture Archives (NELA) and expand the knowledge of archiving landscape architecture in collaborative projects. The aim of this paper is to explain the relevance of landscape architecture archives for research, education and practice; to delineate challenges for landscape architecture archives and their use; and to address emerging issues that further research in this field may be facing.