deutscher landschaftsarchitekturpreis 2021

V o r w o r t Introduction

Introduction

Stephan Lenzen

The fi fteenth German Landscape Award of the bdla (Association of German Landscape Archi tects) shows once again that landscape architec ture excels at dealing with complex tasks. Land scape architects design open spaces with climate adaptation and biodiversity in mind thereby creat ing exceptional and valued places. Over decades, the German Landscape Award has developed into the most important medium to generate aware ness of our profession. It must still be our goal to increase the in fl uence of landscape architecture within the design professions and in society. And landscape architecture itself is constantly facing new challenges. It is necessary to maintain aes thetic aspirations despite a growing complexity of environmental and technical tasks. After all, the strength and unique feature of our profession lies in the outstanding manner in which ecology and technology are combined with creativity and aesthetics. This creative force in design work distinguishes all the awarded works and projects and dem onstrates a strong individual desire to fi nd an aesthetic solution to each of the briefs. ‘We all want to get there but, as Ovid said: To wish for what you want is not enough; With ardent longing you must strive for it.’ This quote by Francesco Petrarca, which really is about him climbing Mont Ventoux on 26 April 1336 – a truly signi fi cant date for the aesthetic perception of nature – can be taken to vicariously stand for this strength. A strength that landscape architecture will also need in the future. The key question in the face of Creative power

climate change and the enormous consumption of resources is: How do we want to live? What do we want to leave behind? We are shaping this future now.

The garden of the earth

The wish for growth, which has driven people for centuries, is now obsolete as we use up more resources in a year than nature can give us. Mini malism and reduction must be the issues of the future. This is not a fashionable gesture, but a necessity of survival. And this reduced transfor mation of the environment needs our creativity, our imagination, our design input. The issue is perspective thinking – an approach with which we are well familiar when designing with plants. Today’s visions and concepts for cities, urban and rural open spaces, green and blue infrastructure, mobility infrastructure, housing and work environ ments, parks, gardens and squares determine whether people will succeed in living in closer har mony with the environment. Landscape architects, together with archi tects and urban planners, can become instiga tors of a new way of thinking. A change of rea soning has already begun in past years, but a paradigm shift that would be required to face climate change has not been addressed in a focused way. It is not enough to wait for poli cies and to implement them as minimum stand ards. We must get involved in order to live up to the responsibility of our profession and the societal relevance of landscape architecture. As designers, we are a part of the resource-using and high CO 2 -emitting construction sector. We

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