vii
Design proposes ideas but it is through the medium
of landscape detail that these ideas are projected
as a material reality on site. The art of this activity,
and I need to declare immediately that it is a very
inventive, subtle and robust art-form, lies in the
processes of detail design – the act of detailing by
the landscape architect and the subsequent evolu-
tion and elaboration over time and by others of the
resulting constructed landscape detail elements
and forms. If landscape architecture is to continue
to advance its knowledge base as a series of cul-
tural practices and a pragmatic art form of the high-
est level, design practitioners and teachers must
pay due care and attention to advancing the practice
of landscape detail as the core of contemporary
landscape design.
Three crucial areas of work need to be carried out by
landscape researchers and academics regarding the
broader subject of landscape technology, construc-
tion and detail design. These are detail durability,
the preparation of a history of landscape technol-
ogy and, finally, regional case studies in landscape
design detail. The first area, durability, has become
of increasing significance to the landscape architec-
ture profession as issues of sustainability, diminish-
ing natural material resources and accountability
required by clients and municipalities for construct-
ed landscape design projects over time. The second
area, on the history of landscape technology, has
regrettably still not received adequate attention by
landscape historians or theorists and still remains
a productive area of the landscape field in need of
development. Finally, with this publication focusing
on the European experience of landscape detail and
detailing practices, the third area of work takes a
significant step forward in addressing the issues of
landscape detail across national and geographical
boundaries. In this book and in the cases studies
that are illustrated here, the European landscape
design community has taken up the task of offering
critical commentary on contemporary detail prac-
tices and projects within their national landscapes.
This is both a timely and significant task as the
development and implementation of contemporary
landscapes and conversely, it should be noted, the
demolition and eradication of many more recent
design works, continues with little pause. In addi-
tion, the geographical and cultural complexities of
the national practices demonstrated here present
an antidote to globalization, homogeneity and lack
of specificity in detail design. This is therefore a
benchmark publication by the editors Jens Balsby
Nielsen, Torben Dam and Ian Thompson in the
evolution of landscape architectural practice and
scholarship.
The case studies that occupy the greater part of
this book illustratate landscape projects as living
dynamic processes of design, with their resultant
Foreword
