Have you ever wondered what’s the real difference between a Landscape Architect and a Landscape Designer? Do you think it might be critical to your new garden project whether you choose one over the other? Is one more likely to design a better-looking garden for you than the other?
If you’ve ever wanted to know the answers to these questions, we invite you to discover them in this article.
As we’ve employed both Landscape Designers and Landscape Architects in our business for many years, we feel well-qualified to discuss the differences between them. We’d love to share our knowledge with you in this article.
We hope by the end you’ll have a much better understanding of whether the choice of one over the other might mean a lot to you, or not.
The first key to understanding the differences between Landscape Architects and Landscape Designers is to recognise the different types of work each tends to do.
Landscape Architects will typically work on larger-scale public and commercial projects such as:
As such they need a higher level of training and qualification than a Landscape Designer.
A Landscape Designer however will mostly work on smaller-scale domestic, residential and private spaces.
So you might feel that a Landscape Architect can do anything a Landscape Designer can do and more, but not so much the other way around. However, this is not necessarily true.
Landscape Architects do tend to have more training in areas that would be issues which a public or corporate organisation would want to address in their garden projects. Issues like sustainability in design, the environmental impact of the garden, how the public will engage with the garden, well-being issues, etc
But for private clients, if these issues are not important to them, then a Landscape Designer will work to the client’s brief and therefore have no need to draw on any other experience or training.
A Landscape Designer will typically do an 18-month diploma course. Whereas a Landscape Architect will study a degree course over 4-5 years.
This is due to the additional subjects that a Landscape Architect will need to study for the work they tend to do (as outlined above).
Apart from learning about the art and science of garden design, a Landscape Architect will often also study:
Climate/Environmental issues - including the Heat Island Effect, Population Density, Biodiversity of Flora & Fauna, etc
The Built Environment – vehicle and pedestrian movement, public transport, the relationship between architecture and spaces, the balance of green space and blue space, etc
People – how will people interact with each other in the space, who will the space be designed for and how the space could influence behaviours
Health & Wellbeing – does the space make people feel better, does the garden give people enough personal space, how should seating be placed to encourage people to use the space?
Landscape Architects clearly study for much longer than Landscape Designers. They also study a great many more subjects. But there is one subject that Landscape Architects often tend not to study and that is horticulture – the field of plants. Which you might find rather surprising.
So you can have a fully qualified Landscape Architect who knows very little about plants. In which case they might be completely unable to recommend to you which specific plants to plant in the garden they designed for you. (They might recommend some general types of plants for you – like palms or shrubs or tall thin trees or ground cover.)
To overcome this educational shortfall, many Landscape Architects will do additional training in Horticulture to gain a better understanding of plants. Or they might engage a horticulturalist or Horticultural Designer to work with them on projects to recommend which plants to plant in the garden they have designed.
While both Landscape Designers and Landscape Architects design gardens, there is a major component of a garden that needs some specialist attention. This is the plants. A horticultural designer or horticulturist will often work with a Landscape Architect to advise on suitable plants for the project as explained above.
A horticulturalist's extensive training covers every aspect of plants – from their biochemistry and make-up, to what kind of climate and soil conditions suit which plant varieties, etc, etc
So they will assess the soil and climatic conditions of the garden’s location, discuss with the client what type of plants they like, and then recommend the most suitable for planting in that garden.
Once you have gained your degree as a Landscape Architect, you can only operate as one by becoming registered and licensed.
However, a Landscape Designer can come to their position via multiple different channels. As previously explained, they can either gain an educational qualification, like an 18-month diploma or gain relevant experience or practical knowledge in the field.
They can be apprenticed to another Landscape Designer or even Landscape Architect where they receive extensive on-the-job training and experience which they can then supplement with additional academic training if they wish.
Landscape Designers don’t need to be registered or licenced in order to operate as one. This means anyone can technically call themselves a Landscape Designer even if they have no training or experience.
(The same goes for Landscapers who are the people who actually build or construct the garden.)
Despite their differences in qualifications and often the roles they end up working in, if both are working in residential landscape design then the work they do has a lot of similarities.
First, they will visit the client’s site to take a look at the proposed project, whether it’s a completely new garden to be built or if it’s a garden makeover.
They will then sit down with the client and discuss the client’s ideas, hopes and dreams for their garden, including their wish list and any ‘must haves’ or ‘must not haves’.
Both will then be responsible for designing the garden. For this, they will develop detailed plans and drawings that outline the layout of the landscape, for the garden they design. This will include the placement of various elements such as plants, trees, pathways, and structures. They also select and specify the materials and plants to be used in the design.
They will present the Concept Design for the garden to the client and discuss any changes with them. Then they will become involved in developing the Master Plan and in most cases carry on a role in the actual build of the garden.
Many people seem to attach more prestige to the term Landscape Architect than the term Landscape Designer. This is probably due to the prestige associated with the word Architect. Just like a person who has an ‘architect designed’ home will tend to think it is more prestigious than a person who simply had a house built by a builder.
There is some truth to this, given the extensive level of higher training and qualifications required to become a Landscape Architect than a designer.
There is also some consideration that a design by one will be more sophisticated than another. This may be true but not always.
We are pretty positive that if we showed you two domestic gardens, one designed by a Landscape Designer and one designed by a Landscape Architect you might be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two.
In fact can you tell whether a Landscape Designer or Landscape Architect designed this garden?
At Whyte Gardens, we employ both Landscape Designers and Landscape Architects. Even though each has different qualifications, training and experience, because they are all being employed to design private gardens for residential clients they tend to work in a similar manner.
Some people do assume that Landscape Architects tend to design more “modern” gardens whereas Landscape Designers might be more traditional but this is really just a generality that may be ture or not for you, depending on who you choose.
However, rest assured that ultimately both Landscape Designers and Landscape Architects are involved in the creation of beautiful garden spaces that incorporate both softscapes (plants, lawns, organic plantings) and hardscapes (decks, paving, pools, pergolas etc)
At Whyte Gardens while you may be allocated either a Landscape Designer or Landscape Architect to work with directly on designing your garden, the whole team tends to work in a very collaborative manner. Meaning they share ideas on various projects and contribute to each other’s work. So you really have a whole team working on your project in the background.
In the end, the title doesn’t really matter that much, it’s how well the person working on designing your garden, listens to and understands your need and ultimately delivers to you a garden that thrills and delights you.
Some things your Landscape Designer may not tell you
What's included in a landscape designer's Master Plan?
When do you need to engage a landscape designer?
To have a free, no-obligation discussion about an upcoming landscaping project with one of our Landscape Designers or Landscape Architects please feel free to click through on this link: