Memory of the Designed Landscape
The Dutch landscape is almost entirely designed. Waterways, polders, forests and dunes were all created on the drawing boards of garden and landscape architects. But their archives, which contain valuable information about design processes and techniques, are under pressure. In the Netherlands, there is no obvious place to store such archives: as they struggle to find their way into cultural institutions, they are fragmented or lost. The Memory of the Designed Landscape programme calls for the protection of garden and landscape architecture archives.
Following the first inventory of a potential collection policy in 2021, a three-year programme (2022-2024) aimed to build a broad consensus in which the importance of a careful management of garden and landscape architecture archives is implemented in cultural policy as a public responsibility
Network
In the coming period 2025-2028, we will build on the Framework Programme by focusing on the creation, development and maintenance of a network of archive creators, managers and users. The network will be active in facilitating and guiding digitisation, archiving, management and preservation, and will act as a signpost and point of contact within the cultural heritage archiving community. A tight network of institutions, researchers and designers that preserves, protects and makes available the memory of the profession contributes to the legitimisation of the profession and increases knowledge and understanding of the design of the Dutch landscape.
Case studies
Case studies are essential for developing knowledge about the assessment and selection of archives and for formulating preservation solutions with practical and financial implications. The Framework Programme examined the first four case studies: Bureau B+B, Bureau Vallen-Taken, Zuiderpark and Room for the River. In 2025, we will select and study three or four new case studies. The evaluation method for garden and landscape architecture archives developed during the Framework Programme 2022-2024 will be used to gain an overall understanding of the situation and value of an archive.
Garden Futures
➝ Garden FuturesContact
The programme is coordinated by the Nieuwe Instituut. For more information about this programme, please contact: ontworpenlandschap@nieuweinstituut.nl or subscribe to the newsletter using the button below.