Terragrams

Stefan Rotzler has made projects for gardens, public spaces, sports facilities, infrastructure across Europe. After studying this History of Art, and working as a gardener, he attended the ITR Technical School in Rapperswil, Switzerland, before opening his own office.

Claude Cormier is the founder of his eponymous practice. His work explores a conceptualist approach to landscape architecture that, in contrast to functionalist modes, explores a defining concept through all aspects of a project's design.

Marc Treib is a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a landscape and architectural historian and critic and has published extensively.

Maria Goula is a landscape architect and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Urbanism and Territorial Planning of the Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura in Barcelona. In Dispatch 25 she discusses the Biennial, her Ph.D. work, the European Landscape Convention, teaching, and the state of the profession in Spain.

Gabriele Kiefer founded Büro Kiefer, a landscape architecture studio that has worked across Germany and Europe. She was a finalist in Barcelona's 5th Biennal of landscape architecture for a project on the outskirts of Switzerland. Here, Gabriele discusses her Opfiker Park in Zurich, her major influences, her teaching, former industrial sites, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Alexander Reford is a historian and the director of the Reford Gardens of Metis in Quebec and the co-founder of the International Garden Festival of Metis. He has written a number of books and numerous articles in the fields of Garden Design, Canadian history and tourism. Here, Alexander talks to us about the 10th edition of the Metis Garden Festival, its future, the origin of Reford Gardens, the effects of tourism on the landscape, and blue sticks.

Ken is the founder of the Ken Smith Workshop. He is most well-known for his Camouflage Roof Garden on the Museum of Modern Art and his current work for the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California. In this dispatch, Ken discusses his work for the Orange County Great Park, working in India, growing up on a farm, John Cage, the European condition, and his first jobs out of college.

René Bihan is a registered landscape architect and the managing principal of the San Francisco office of the SWA Group. He is also a commissioner for the San Francisco Arts Commission and has designed and managed projects such as Beijing Finance Street, the City College of San Francisco Master Plan, the Hong Kong Cultural Harbour, and the Salt Lake City Redevelopment of Blocks 75 and 76.

John Beardsley has authored numerous books, including the well-recognized EarthWorks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape. In this dispatch, John discusses how his interest in Land Art was born, his project Dirtywork, the Quilts of Gee’s Bend, landscape strategies infiltrating from the outside, and his role as a teacher, curator and historian.

Michael van Gessel is a Dutch landscape architect with a wide variety of experience as a sole practicioner and as a director at Bureau B+B. In this dispatch, he discusses his books, agricultural and rural territory in Europe, and his approach to sites.