Building material "plant" as a core competence of landscape architects.

On 20 September 2019, the bdla working group on the use of plants held its constituent meeting in Berlin. The committee is chaired by Prof. Dr. Swantje Duthweiler. As bdla spokesperson for plant use, she had already initiated the bdla Plant Planner Days, which took place for the third time in Freising in June of this year.

Plant use is a core competence of landscape architects, which clearly distinguishes our profession from structural architecture and other engineering disciplines.

Prof. Swantje Duthweiler

With the increasing density of cities, advancing climate change and growing interest in greening buildings, the use of plants is currently becoming increasingly important. In addition, landscape architecture offices have to adapt to short-term changes and economic threats due to new plant diseases and pests.

With the foundation of the working group, a platform was created to exchange information on current developments and research results. The results of the discussions will, among other things, flow into the further development of the bdla Plant Planner Days, which will take place again in May/June of next year.

Certificate for plant knowledge and plant use

A first concrete project of the working group is to develop a certification for plant knowledge and plant use. Knowledge about plants and their use sometimes does not have the necessary status in university education that would be desirable from the point of view of the profession.

Students who are interested in plant use or would like to deepen their knowledge in this field will be given the opportunity to explicitly prove their competence by obtaining a certificate. The certificate is to be realised in cooperation with various universities. University lecturers from Germany and neighbouring countries have already signalled their interest to Prof. Duthweiler.

In a second step, an extended certificate with more knowledge about plant species and varieties is planned, which is intended for interested landscape architects in the sense of further education. Preparatory courses for the acquisition or deepening of plant knowledge, be it intensive courses on site or online seminars, are planned as a supplement.