Fieldwork contains an essay section and a section describing individual projects. From over 500 entries, the jury selected 43 projects from places as far afield as Dublin and Athens. The outstanding fieldwork by their authors exhibits sensitivity to materials and details, respect for customs and mentalities, and pleasure in the play of their own powers of invention.

The discussions between the jury and the editors during the selection process threw up various topical issues. The most important of these were explored by the editors and selected authors in essays on European cartography, the cultivated landscape, the cross-border exchange of ideas within Europe, the development of suburbia, and the profession and its pioneers.

A core issue addressed by the team was the fact that Europeans never develop their cities on virgin land, but on former agricultural land. The European answer to the how of the progressive urbanisation of the landscape is therefore: we work in and with the field. Hence the title Fieldwork.

Press voices

“(…) The seven essays, and the forty-three projects comprise fifty views on the present European situation, which together form a great achievement to be recommended. The commentaries on all projects were done by the jury and focus on the jury’s specific interpretation and selection of each project. Since the job was performed as a critical inquiry of each project’s raison d’être (…), the selection has therefore more or less been a process of ‘reading’ theses projects into the present, or, more precisely, how they come to terms with or even match the situations of present time. From this focus, one can see the perspective of the book. (…)”

Kristine Jensen, University of Aarhus, in: JoLA, autumn 2006


“(…) The 43 projects (…) display and advance the role of landscape architects in creating urban tissue. In addition to the handsome 4- and 6-page layouts of each of the 43 groundbreaking projects, Fieldwork includes seven essays. In his foreword, Wageningen professor emeritus Meto Vroom acknowleges broad influences of the work selected but also notes that landscape architecture in Europe remains largely based on national culture, on national legislation and economy, and on regional topography and climate, all of which create significant differences in the nature of the design products. (…) We in North America could follow the lead of the LAE Foundation. (…)”


Frederick R. Steiner, University of Texas at Austin, in: Landscape Architecture, November 2006