Landscape Architect

✅✅ When built environments integrate landscape spaces into the overall design experience, the result is a well-planned property development.

Image credit: AspireDesignAcademy

✅✅

Maria Ulaschenko, in a recent post on LinkedIn, shared sobering realities architects often face— realities which Filipino professional landscape architects also deal with.

While the post’s argument was “Nobody in architecture school ever said the words ‘do not do that for free,’ somewhere along the way, we learned that “There is NO such thing as free design.” At least that’s what our Professional Code of Ethics tell us. Still, most interested clients assume we can easily give landscape design sketches pro bono, or if not, at a much lesser design fee.

In the academe, students are barely taught how to prepare for the realities of actual practice. In our experience, the business of becoming a professional landscape architect was hardly taught in school. Sadly, we had to learn it through trial and error especially in the early years, an experience we don’t encourage aspiring student graduates to try. Learning how to write and execute a contract for example, was a process we had to learn by experience and consistent practice.

✅Key takeaways

📍Students are taught how to design structures, understand history, and in today’s tech-driven society, basic software packages and “how to defend a scheme to a room of people who were not paying for it” or Thesis Defense, as we call it.

📍The statement “that is additional scope” is most often not emphasized. The tendency then is in practice, “you bring three options when one was asked for. You redraw the (façade) over the weekend and apologise for the delay. You enter the competition, pay for the prints yourself, and call the loss exposure.”

📍The design fee “arrives as a percentage of construction cost, which means the smarter and cheaper you build, the less you take home. That is not a confidence problem. It is a trained one. Which is the only good news here, because trained things can be untrained.”

BHUTAN, a small Himalayan Kingdom in South Asia, gears for development as its government embarks on a large-scale master-planned project in Gelephu, near the borders of India. Below is an example of how engineering transforms into art, harnessing the forces of nature and turn it into hydropower, or hydro electric energy.

Render : Brick Visual
Image : arch2o.com

✅✅ A good read on a post by Stephen Barnard on LinkedIn.

➡️ Our key takeaway:
AI will not and cannot replace sound design judgement. It can, however, support that judgement with “better information, more options and faster feedback.”

Refusing AI Is Not a Strategy for Landscape Professionals AI will not replace design judgement. It can give that judgement better information, more options and faster feedback.

IFLA-APR Talk & Share | Building Bridges: Cross-Border Collaboration in Landscape Architecture Building Bridges: Cross-Border Collaboration in Landscape Architect...

➡️The practice of Landscape Architecture (LA) in the Philippines is relatively new compared with the Engineering and Architecture professions.

With the first full curriculum in LA being introduced in the University of the Philippines in Diliman back in the late 70s, it has taken a while for the profession to grow both in numbers of licensed LAs and in full recognition of its role in property development.

However, in recent years, with the rise in real estate developers and enlightened clients, there has been a steady growth in the practice of this profession. Other universities have started also with a full Landscape Architecture curriculum, thanks to our fellow LAs who brought the profession outside of Manila.

But what do Landscape Architects exactly engage in?

A quick online survey states that:

“A landscape architect is a professional who plans, designs, and manages outdoor spaces to make them functional, beautiful, safe, and environmentally sustainable.”

Range of projects can include:

🌿 Public parks & playgrounds
🌿 Residential gardens
🌿 University & corporate campuses
🌿 Streetscapes & urban plazas
🌿 Nature trails & conservation areas
🌿 Waterfronts & green infrastructure
🌿 Resorts, golf courses & commercial developments

A landscape architect, then, must have a substantial working knowledge of :

✅ Landscape Design and how the process works “to create attractive outdoor spaces”
✅ Site Engineering “in order to handle grading, drainage, and accessibility requirements”
✅ Planting (including Botany and Ecology) “to select appropriate vegetation and protect ecosystems”
✅ Construction and Project Management “to ensure projects can be built safely and within budget”

If a city, for instance, wants to use an empty lot into a community park, a Landscape Architect needs to:

👉Study the site and its prevailing environmental conditions
👉Design walkways, gardens, play areas, and seating areas
👉Plan drainage, irrigation and lighting
👉Choose plant materials such as trees, shrubs, and other plants
👉Work with other professionals such as engineers, architects, and contractors during planning & construction phase.

It distinguishes itself from that of a gardener (who makes sure plants are well-maintained) or to a landscape designer (who works on smaller-scale private projects) in terms of technical training, scope and function, among others.

How so?

A Landscape Architect goes into a more comprehensive training, through a four-year academic program, followed by apprenticeship and continuing professional education in order to design more complex outdoor environments and, in many countries like the Philippines, must have a professional license to engage with both public and private large-scale projects. Others take graduate studies to further advance training and specialty.

In short, a Landscape Architect envisions, designs and manages ex*****on of outdoor environments, and recently, indoor green walls, creating spaces that are not only visually appealing but also sustainable and welcoming for people to use and experience.

➡️ Credits to a post by Chris Brock on LinkedIn

🌟 How can meaningful relationships transform design and collaboration? 🌟

At the upcoming IFLA-APR Talk & Share, hosted by New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Tuia Pito Ora (NZILA), we explore the Māori concept of whakawhanaungatanga — the power of building deep, meaningful connections in design and teamwork 🌿🤝!

Join us as we hear from two perspectives on how relationships inspire innovative, culturally rooted, and collaborative design solutions.

One session will feature Henry Crothers, Design Director of LandLAB_ , presenting Te Ara Tukutuku — a groundbreaking waterfront project deeply connected to Māori knowledge and global partnership 🌏✨.

📅 Thursday, 30 July 2026
⏰ 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM (SGT) | 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM (NZT)
🎟️ Register here to secure your seat: https://ifla-apr.glueup.com/event/ifla-apr-talk-share-building-bridges-cross-border-collaboration-in-landscape-architecture-184502