Landscape architecture in Denmark
Danish landscape architecture has been vigorous for
over a hundred years.^1 Its origins were in the design
of private gardens, but since the start of the 1930s
landscape designers have participated in a wide
range of projects from parks and housing areas to
motorways and landscape planning. After the Second
World War, the amount and range of landscape
architectural assignments rapidly expanded. Several
landscape architects had careers which spanned
40–50 years and during this period a new genera-
tion grew up. Many of them worked at the offices of
G.N. Brandt and C. Th. Sørensen and were part of a
well-connected network which provided the basis for
a common experience, and the formation of a tradi-
tion (which is understandable in a small country with
only five million inhabitants). In her Guide to Danish
Landscape Architecture, Annemarie Lund remarks
that during the 1930s ‘several landscape architects
continued enthusiastically to experiment with various
geometrical shapes to create exciting space’ (1997:
22). In the 1950s, the number of landscape architects
grew, as did the number of assignments. It started
with housing areas, accompanied by innumerable
other commissions to create ground for elemen-
tary and high schools, universities, training centres,
health-care and cultural institutions and cemeteries.
Common features of these garden and land-
scaping projects were that they were to befunctional, sensible, practical and beautiful.
The technical execution was excellent down
to the last detail, carried out with great
insight. The gardens were simple and, in
contrast to today’s creations, unpretentious.
(ibid.: 23)During the 1960s, international inspiration became
more and more obvious. There is still a strong urge
to perform a balancing act with ellipses, curves and
slightly staggered, wriggling lines. ‘Streamlined
trellises, delicate steel bridges, imaginative lighting
fixtures, and detailed, complex paving surfaces are
effects that are used frequently and not without
reference to foreign models such as the Parc de la
Villette, Parc Citroën, etc.’ (ibid.: 26).Denmark
Torben Dam and Jens Balsby Nielsen