Introduction

Landscape architecture is a discipline - or a disciplinary field - which developed from a very practical basis in park and garden design. The name was coined in the 19th century when it became a profession along with that of architecture. Landscape architects were originally trained as pupils or apprentices to established practitioners, as was common for many professions. The ideas and theories which the original practitioners applied derived from a range of sources such as architecture, gardening, engineering, agronomy and dendrology. Formal education in universities or colleges of higher education only started in the early 20th century. The first landscape architecture programme in the USA was founded in 1900 at Harvard University, followed in Europe at the Norwegian Agricultural University at Aas near Oslo in 1919, the Technical University of Berlin Germany in 1929, the University of Reading in the UK in 1932, the University of Lisbon in Portugal in 1942 and Wageningen University in the Netherlands in 1948, and other institutions followed. The teachers of the early programmes were a mix of horticulturalists, dendrologists, architects, agronomists and engineers, perhaps with some other disciplines, depending on the character of the institution. Studio courses were interspersed with lectures on scientific subjects along with practical work. Studio tutors often came from offices and many professors had offices themselves so there was a strong connection between theory and practice. In the second half of the 20th century there was a growth in the number of schools, in the range of work undertaken by the profession and in the professional status of landscape architects. The original multi-disciplinary character of the field continued to expand and specialisations gradually developed. However, until recently there was little in the way of academic research taking place which could be considered as strictly belonging to landscape architecture. Professors with doctorates tended to obtain these in associated or neighbouring subject fields and it is still the case that in a number of places it is difficult to study for a doctoral degree in landscape architecture.