Landezine Talks with Günther Vogt: Ecology is Invisible

0:00 - Introduction
2:22 - Vogt LA Case Studio
4:26 - Ecology is invisible
7:18 - Nature, landscape and language
10:02 - Discursive approach
13:32 - Private gardens
18:37 - Shifting scales
24:03 - Protection of landscape in the Alps
26:38 - Scales of meaning
32:33 - Walking as a design method
38:26 - Landscape architecture never went through Modernism

editor's introduction: Günther Vogt has been an important practitioner for a couple of decades now, appreciated globally for his rich, non-linear and adventurous design approach. Initially, his education was more in the direction of botany. He later shifted to landscape architecture by studying in Rapperswil, Switzerland. After his study years, he joined Dieter Kienast, and together, they ran their practice Kienast Vogt until the passing of Kienast in 1998. In 2000, Günther Vogt started his own practice, Vogt Landscape Architecture, in Zurich and slowly spread around Europe. Currently, the office also operates in Berlin, London and Paris, and, of course, in Zurich.

He lectures extensively. This year alone, he gave nearly 20 lectures and his lectures often comprise provocative, even radical statements, but as we live in radically challenging times, we should probably get used to radical ideas and changes in how we inhabit this world. I had the pleasure of inviting Günter Vogt recently to the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, where I curated a short lecture series, and Günter's lecture was titled Ecology is Invisible. If you followed our recent articles on Landezine, you may have noticed some parallels in this thinking, at least from afar. We will now try to have a closer look at Günther's views and also on some recent and not-so-recent shifts in our profession.

Zaš Brezar, editor, Landezine