The French picturesque and the invention of landscape architecture as a design discipline

Abstract

‘Landscape architect’ as a term was invented at the start of the nineteenth century in France. It referred to a new way of thinking about spatial design that originated from a collaboration between different disciplines. This contribution investigates this disciplinary shift in design practices and how it deeply influenced the discourses on what landscape design ought to be. It is argued that these new specialized professionals in France with their own body of design expertise_who came to describe themselves as ‘landscape architects’_were able to bypass some of the inherent constraints of these earlier transdisciplinary design practices, but that, on the other hand, landscape design was also at a loss when this far-reaching dialogue with other disciplinary fields diminished.