Anette Freytag | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (original) (raw)

Anette Freytag

Anette Freytag is an award-winning scholar, educator and critic. Her research focuses on designed landscapes from the 19th century to the contemporary practice with a particular focus on topology and phenomenology. In 2019, she co-founded the Arts Integration Research Collaborative (AIR), which prioritizes creative placemaking to foster spatial justice through multidisciplinary research and curricular agendas that benefit and strengthen the local communities of their arts-integrated interventions.
Before joining the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers as tenured Associate Professor in the Fall of 2016, she has taught undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students at various universities including the ETH Zurich, the University of Basel, the University of Innsbruck, and KU Leuven. In July 2020 she has been promoted to Full Professor at Rutgers.

As Head of Research at the Chair of Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) from 2011-2015 she developed, together with Prof. Christophe Girot and the TheoryLab, "Topology" – a theoretical framework and tools to recast the potentials of landscape architecture. Landscape architecture is understood as an integrative discipline with a deeply rooted tradition in shaping and preserving nature. The goal of establishing a "topological thinking" is to merge ecological concerns and a design approach that considers the basic factors of modeling a site: the understanding of both the terrain and the history of a place, its spatial qualities, the condition of its soil, the proper use of plants and building materials, and the adjustment to the expectations of its users while challenging aesthetic sensitivities. Anette Freytag currently teaches the principles of "Topology" to landscape architects, ecologists, engineers, and planners.

Dr. Freytag´s scholarship has been recognized with a number of prizes, among them the ETH Medal of Distinction for Outstanding Scientific Research (2011) and the Theodor Fischer Prize for Outstanding Scientific Research on the Architecture of the 19th and 20th Centuries by the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich (2012). She has delivered the Timothy Lenahan Memorial Lecture for Landscape Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture in 2014 and was invited as Visiting Scholar at the GSD Harvard in 2015.

Her book "Dieter Kienast. Stadt und Landschaft lesbar machen " published by gta Zurich 2016, received the DAM – Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architectural Book Award 2016, the German Garden Book Award 2016 / Best Book in Garden History and a Special Prize STIHL for exceptional performance, and was selected as one of the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” by the Federal Office for Culture of the Swiss Confederation. The English edition was published under the title "The Landscapes of Dieter Kienast" by gta Verlag, Zurich in 2021 and is available through the University of Chicago Press.. It has been awarded with a John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize 2022 by the Center for Cultural Studies (University of Virginia) and the Foundation for Landscape Studies (New York).

Her book (editor and main author) "The Gardens of La Gara. An 18th century estate in Geneva with gardens designated by Erik Dhont and a labyrinth by Markus Raetz" published by Scheidegger& Spiess in 2018 is a case study to explore, through the prism of one estate, all aspects of garden culture. It is also available in German and French and was selected for the European Garden Book Award 2019.

Anette Freytag's work has appeared in the journals Topos, Studies in the History of Gardens and Landscape Design, Chinese Landscape Architecture Gartenkunst, Garten + Landschaft, Stadt + Grün, and others. She is co-author of Pamphlet 15 Topology (gta Zurich 2012) and co-editor of Landscript 3 Topology (Jovis Berlin 2013) and has contributed papers to several award-winning books. Her work has been supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, the Lucius and Annemarie Burckhardt Foundation, the ETH Department of Architecture, the Rutgers Research Council, the Federation of Swiss Landscape Architects (BSLA-FSAP), the Christoph Merian Foundation and ProHelvetia.

Apart from her work in academia, Anette Freytag founded the research bureau ville.jardin.paysage in 2001 and delivered a highly regarded study on the garden of Stoclet House, created by Josef Hoffmann, 1905-1911. Her study resulted in the garden becoming classified in 2005 and contributed to the architectural ensemble´s inscription on the World Heritage list in 2009.

less

Uploads

Papers by Anette Freytag

Journal of Landscape Architecture, Sep 1, 2020

Collaborative co-founders Drs Freytag and Ritter as well as Dr. O'Brassil-Kulfan in the Douglass ... more Collaborative co-founders Drs Freytag and Ritter as well as Dr. O'Brassil-Kulfan in the Douglass Discovery Program offering students opportunities for hand-on research, experiential learning, collaborative experiences, justice initiatives, and more. ISGRJ Project Fellow Academic Year (AY) 2021-2022 Rutgers Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice Realizing the spatial justice project "March2RUGardens" by the AIR (Arts Integration Research) Collaborative Co-founder of the AIR Collaborative Operative since Spring 2020 Arts Integration Research (AIR) Collaborative Co-founded with Dr. Julia M. Ritter, Rutgers Professor of Dance. The AIR Collaborative prioritizes creative placemaking to foster spatial justice through multidisciplinary research and teaching that benefit Rutgers University and the surrounding communities. See https://rutgers-aircollaborative.net Resulting events / projects The March to Rutgers Gardens attracting 500 participants and inculding 150 performing or lecturing faculty and students from four Schools of the Rutgers New Brunswick Campus. On September 25, 2021, participants joined a choreographed, two-mile walk from the campus to the Gardens and encounter live performances of dance, music, and storytelling along the way. In addition, participants had the opportunity to learn from guest and faculty speakers about the layers of history held by the land upon which Rutgers is built.

Relicta. Archeologie, Monumenten- en Landschapsonderzoek in Vlaanderen, May 1, 2011

Hatje Cantz eBooks, 2006

The text below the picture reads: "DOCTORS MYSTERIOUS SIX, parce qu'ils étaient sept, comme les t... more The text below the picture reads: "DOCTORS MYSTERIOUS SIX, parce qu'ils étaient sept, comme les trois mousquetaires étaient quatre. De gauche à droite: le poète Moerman (décédé) (violon et banjo); Paul Nayaert (piano) qui fut le directeur de la Belgique Joyeuse; Leborne (batterie) qui devint notaire; Robert Goffin (trompete, piston), académicien; René Stoclet (décédé) (saxophone ténor); Jacques Stoclet (trombone) et Marcel Cuvelier (saxophone soprano), fondateur des Jeunesses Musicales. Cette photo fut prise en 1925." 378 379

Nike-Bulletin, 2016

Das Schweizerische Natur- und Heimatschutzgesetz (NHG) gibt dem Bund in Artikel 1 und 3 den Auft... more Das Schweizerische Natur- und Heimatschutzgesetz (NHG)
gibt dem Bund in Artikel 1 und 3 den Auftrag, sich mit allen
Landschaften auf der gesamten Fläche der Schweiz auseinanderzusetzen.
Das Bundesamt für Umwelt befasst sich in seiner
Landschaftsstrategie daher mit Fragen der Landschaftsqualität
in der Raumentwicklung. Auf kantonaler Seite wurde von der
Konferenz der Beauftragten für Natur- und Landschaftsschutz
(KBNL) im Mai 2015 im Zuge der Politik zur Verdichtung und
Innenentwicklung Handlungsbedarf für die Entwicklung der
räumlichen Schnittstellen zwischen offener Landschaft, Siedlungsrand
und urbanem Raum geortet. Daher hat das BAFU
– Abteilung Arten, Ökosysteme, Landschaften (AÖL) das Städtebau-
und Architekturbüro ernst niklaus fausch beauftragt, in
einem Forschungsbericht die Agglomeration von der Landschaft
her zu denken. Der Artikel resümiert die Ergebnisse.

The conference is looking for a critical debate about the contemporary intelligence of landscape ... more The conference is looking for a critical debate about the contemporary intelligence of landscape at a time of relentless conceptual oscillation and uncertainty. Outstanding thinkers and practitioners will share their thoughts and convictions, to help shed light on a multitude of issues, on one of the most ill-defined concepts of our age – call it landscape if you will. Lectures and discussions will gravitate around the following three main topics: Science and Memory, Power and Terrain, Method and Design.

This essay is about Topology in landscape architecture. Topology comprises a theoretical framewor... more This essay is about Topology in landscape architecture. Topology comprises a theoretical framework, a method and tools to reintroduce the capacities and methods of landscape architecture into the current theoretical discourse and actual shaping of our environments. Landscape architecture is understood as an integrative discipline with a deeply rooted tradition in shaping and preserving nature. The goal of establishing a «topological thinking» is to merge ecological concerns and a design approach that considers the basic factors of modeling a site: the understanding of both the terrain and the history of a place, its spatial qualities, the condition of its soil, the proper use of plants and building materials, and the adjustment to the expectations of its users while challenging aesthetic sensitivities. It presents some examples of the successful work of topologists from Peter Josef Lenne to Kathryn Gustafson and discusses current challenges of landscape design practices in Europe.

Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2020

Chines Landscape Architecture , 2022

Swiss Landscape Architects Georges Descombes (b. 1939) and Dieter Kienast (1945—1998) share sever... more Swiss Landscape Architects Georges Descombes (b. 1939) and Dieter Kienast (1945—1998) share several passions, when it comes to designing landscapes: During their lifetime of creation, they both drew from their own childhood experiences roaming around and discovering nature. Consequently, playfulness, unexpected discoveries, and an intense experience of landscapes are central features of their works. Before any concept of a design intervention emerged, they both intensely observed the specific site or landscape for hours, if not days or weeks. Only after this complete immersion design concepts were made. They were/are both obsessed by the sensual experience of gardens and landscapes and their designs always aim to intensify these experiences. Their goal was always to make landscapes legible through design interventions. In this quest, they especially cared for giving orientation in suburban landscapes, where the city and the countryside intermingle. Last but not least, their works have been significantly influenced by the Austrian author Peter Handke (b. 1942) laureate of the 2019 Nobel Prize of Literature, and an ardent hiker, like Kienast and Descombes. Movement in space is a central motif in Handke’s work, whereby his observations and descriptions focus especially on the margins of urban space. Walking in the city, out into the periphery, crisscrossing and passing nature, is a frequently recurring motif in his work. The rational for the nobel prize highlights that it was awarded to Peter Handke "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."
These passions are shared by a third landscape architect active in Switzerland and all over the world, Günther Vogt (b. 1957). He founded Vogt Landscape Architects in 2000 and closely worked with Kienast between 1987 and 1998. The paper investigates the work of these three landscape architects and how they have been influenced by the author Peter Handke.

Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 30, 2010

A great number of researchers have already written on Stoclet House. This essay is about its gard... more A great number of researchers have already written on Stoclet House. This
essay is about its garden and provides a way of analyzing the whole ensemble from a
‘garden viewpoint’. As will be shown, the following characteristic features of
Hoffmann’s architecture are all well known in garden design: the inscription of
the site within an urban context, the strong link between a building and its garden
— between the interior and the exterior — the importance of the visitor’s own
movement to the experience of spaces or optical sensations, or Hoffmann’s
different ways of taking into account the changing light within a day, a season or
a weather change. Therefore the author decided to take the reader on a kind of
‘promenade’ through the ensemble and through a lost world of utopian ideals that
had been developed around 1900. Sometimes exhaustive in its descriptive details,
this essay is meant as a kind of archeology of a ‘hidden garden’ whose opening to
the public might take another decade or more.

Die Brücke. Kärntner Zeitschrift für Kunst und Kultur, 2006

2 8 D i e B r ü c k e 7 1 -O k t o b e r 0 6

Journal of Landscape Architecture, Sep 1, 2020

Relicta. Archeologie, Monumenten- en Landschapsonderzoek in Vlaanderen, May 1, 2011

Hatje Cantz eBooks, 2006

Nike-Bulletin, 2016

Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2020

Chines Landscape Architecture , 2022

Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 30, 2010

Die Brücke. Kärntner Zeitschrift für Kunst und Kultur, 2006

2 8 D i e B r ü c k e 7 1 -O k t o b e r 0 6

Les jardins de la Gara. Un domaine genevois du XVIIIe siècle avec des jardins d’Erik Dhont et un labyrinthe de Markus Raetz, publié sous la direction d'Anette Freytag, Scheidegger&Spiess, 2018

Architecture paysagiste historique et contemporain dans un domaine genevois du XVIIIe siècle. Sc... more Architecture paysagiste historique et contemporain dans un domaine genevois du XVIIIe siècle.

Scheidegger&Spiess
Publié sous la direction d'Anette Freytag
1ère édition, 2018
Texte en français
Relié
380 pages, 240 illustrations en couleur et 48 en noir et blanc
19 x 27 cm
ISBN 978-3-85881-803-4

Entre le lac Léman et le Mont-Blanc, tradition et innovation confluent à La Gara pour former un ensemble exceptionnel. Composé d’une maison de maître et de dépendances agricoles entourées de vastes jardins utiles et ornementaux, le domaine a connu de nombreuses transformations depuis le XVIIIe siècle.
Sous la direction d’Anette Freytag, l’ouvrage en révèle l’histoire et la manière dont La Gara est une parfait illustration de l’art des jardins européen de ces deux derniers siècles. Le coeur du livre, cependant, s’attache à la renaissance du domaine depuis vingt ans. Aménagements intérieurs et restauration des bâtiments, revitalisation du paysage, réinterprétation contemporaine des jardins par le paysagiste belge Erik Dhont ou encore un labyrinthe créé par l’artiste suisse Markus Raetz sont autant de thèmes étudiés ici en détail. Les séquences photographiques de Georg Aerni, qui a accompagné, quatre ans durant, la transformation de La Gara au fil des saisons, scandent la découverte des lieux et accompagnent son récit.

Die Gärten von La Gara. Ein Landgut aus dem 18. Jahrhundert bei Genf mit Gärten von Erik Dhont und einem Labyrinth von Markus Raetz, hg. von Anette Freytag, Scheidegger&Spiess, 2018

Zeitgenössische und historische Landschaftsgestaltung auf einem Landgut aus dem 18. Jahrhundert ... more Zeitgenössische und historische Landschaftsgestaltung auf einem Landgut aus dem 18. Jahrhundert bei Genf.

Verlag Scheidegger&Spiess
Herausgegeben von Anette Freytag
1. Auflage, 2018
Gebunden
380 Seiten, 240 farbige und 48 sw Abbildungen
19 x 27 cm
ISBN 978-3-85881-570-5

Dieses Buch porträtiert das historische Landgut La Gara in Jussy bei Genf und dessen Gartenanlage aus dem 18. Jahrhundert. Die Gebäude hat die Schweizer Architektin Verena Best-Mast restauriert und mit stimmigen innenarchitektonischen Interventionen ergänzt. Die Gärten wurden vom renommierten belgischen Landschaftsarchitekten Erik Dhont in zeitgenössischer Weise subtil neu interpretiert und mit einem palindromartigen Heckenlabyrinth ergänzt, das der Schweizer Künstler Markus Raetz gestaltet hat.
Anette Freytag verfolgte die Verwandlung La Garas in den vergangenen Jahren aus nächster Nähe. Ihre eigenen und die Beiträge ihrer Mitautoren – Verena Best-Mast, Erik A. de Jong, Erik Dhont, Éric Dumont, Leïla el-Wakil, Iris Lauterbach, Gaël Maridat, Rainer Michael Mason, Markus Raetz, Luc-Éric Revilliod und Natalie Rilliet – beleuchten die Geschichte des Anwesens, die Restaurierung der Bauten und Gärten samt historischem Bewässerungssystem und Karpfenteichen sowie die zeitgenössischen landschaftlichen Interventionen. Ins Blickfeld gerückt werden auch die Genfer Gartenkultur und die Charakteristik der Landschaft von Jussy mit ihrer grossen Biodiversität. Das Buch widmet sich ausserdem dem Phänomen der «Ferme ornée», einer antiken Vorbildern nachempfundenen Villa mit landwirtschaftlichen und ornamentalen Funktionen. Ein gewichtiger Bestandteil dieses Buchs sind die neuen Fotografien des Zürcher Fotografen Georg Aerni aus allen vier Jahreszeiten.

Anette Freytag, The Landscapes of Dieter Kienast, Zurich: gta , 2021

Dieter Kienast (1945–1998) is a key Swiss figure in European landscape architecture. Amidst a str... more Dieter Kienast (1945–1998) is a key Swiss figure in European landscape architecture. Amidst a striking change in societal understandings of nature, he sought a synthesis between design and ecology in the 1970s. He designed spaces to make the dissolving opposition between city and countryside legible and to enable aesthetic experience to help cope with increasingly complex everyday life. As a designer, planner, researcher and university lecturer, Kienast introduced new challenges into the discussion of those fields. Critique of urban planning, processes of participation and the significance of spontaneous urban vegetation played just as much a role in these discussions as did art, literature, architecture and the popularity of postmodernism.

"The Landscapes of Dieter Kienast" is the english edition of "Dieter Kienast – Stadt und Landschaft lesbar machen" (Zurich: gta 2016). It is the first critical and extensive study of the work of Swiss Landscape Architect Dieter Kienast (1945-1998) to appear in English. Kienast searched for a possible reconciliation of science and memory in landscape architecture, thus giving important impulses for a reorientation of the profession. His projects aimed for a sensual experience of nature and the reintroduction of its symbolic reading and understanding. This occurred after a period in which nature was merely understood as an ecological system. Apart from being ‘nature’s advocate’, landscape architecture followed an emancipatory design paradigm focused on the practical daily use of open space. After receiving a diploma in landscape planning and a doctorate in plant sociology from the University of Kassel, Kienast carried out research on spontaneous urban vegetation and developed a new aesthetic for designing with nature in the city. He was able to go from a study and interpretation of spontaneous vegetation in the 1970s to making his work legible through an emblematic and symbolic use of plants. In the 1980s Kienast used his concepts based on form to confront and oppose the wildlife gardening movement influenced by Swiss garden architecture. His search for forms that would make spatial and material qualities more conscious was influenced by the literature, art, and architecture of the day. Some examples of these forms are presented in the paper. Within this context, Kienast’s nature- and social science-oriented education went through several processes of reinterpretation. The question of whether his increasingly form-driven open spaces were suitable for daily use shows that Kienast successfully modified the emancipatory design paradigm of the Kassel School in his later projects – from practical to contemplative use, from daily life to aesthetic experience – while his subject-related focus remained constant. Proponents of the Kassel School considered him to be little more than a “postmodern designer of shapes”, a label that more accurately applies to those of his imitators who adopted his vocabulary without considering whether it could be integrated in the landscape or not. Kienast’s projects are bound to space and consciousness; they embody the topological and phenomenological dimensions of landscape architecture.

Anette Freytag, Dieter Kienast Stadt und Landschaft lesbar machen, Zürich: gta, 2016

Der Schweizer Dieter Kienast (1945–1998) ist eine Schlüsselfigur der europäischen Landschaftsarch... more Der Schweizer Dieter Kienast (1945–1998) ist eine Schlüsselfigur der europäischen Landschaftsarchitektur. An einer markanten Wende im gesellschaftlichen Verständnis von Natur suchte er nach einer Synthese zwischen Gestaltung und Ökologie, ohne stadtfeindlich zu sein oder einem sentimentalistischen Naturbild anzuhängen. Seine Freiräume sollten die sich auflösenden Gegensätze von Stadt und Land lesbar machen und in ihrer ästhetischen Erfahrbarkeit die Bewältigung eines immer komplexer werdendes Alltagsleben unterstützen.

In ihrem Buch bietet Anette Freytag die erste kritische Auseinandersetzung mit Kienasts realisiertem Werk, seiner Entwurfshaltung und seinen theoretischen Positionen. Es beleuchtet zugleich eine prägnante Epoche der Landschaftsarchitektur, die seit den 1970er Jahren darum kämpft, wieder ein integraler Teil der Stadtentwicklung und Impulsgeber für die grossmassstäbliche Planung zu werden. Dieter Kienast wurde deren charismatische Leitfigur. Er hat die neuen Herausforderungen erkannt, benannt und als Entwerfer, Planer, Forscher und Hochschullehrer zur Diskussion gestellt. Städtebaukritik, Partizipationsprozesse und die Bedeutung der spontanen Vegetation der Stadt spielen dabei ebenso eine Rolle wie Kunst, Literatur, Architektur und die Populärkultur der Postmoderne.

Georg Aerni hat die bahnbrechende und zugleich zeitlose Sprache von Kienasts Œuvre in aktuellen Neuaufnahmen festgehalten. Fasziniert von den Kontrastwirkungen zwischen den vom Menschen gesetzten Formen und der sich diesen Formen widersetzenden Natur, erdachte Kienast ein Reservoir an Ideen und Lösungen, um zur Gestaltung einer Umwelt beizutragen, die lebenswert und zugleich schön ist. Seine hochentwickelte Sensibilität für Material und Raum verband ihn mit Künstlern wie Joseph Beuys, Sol LeWitt oder Mario Merz und machte ihn zum engen Partner von Architekten und Stadtplanern wie Herzog & de Meuron oder Diener & Diener.

Vorworte von Erik A. de Jong und Christophe Girot
Mit Fotografien von Georg Aerni und Christian Vogt

Auszeichnungen
«DAM - Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architectural Book Award 2016»
Deutscher Gartenbuchpreis 2016 «Bestes Buch über Gartengeschichte»
Deutscher Gartenbuchpreis 2016 «STIHL Sonderpreis für aussergewöhnliche Leistungen»
Auszeichnung «Die schönsten Schweizer Bücher 2015»

Pamphlet 15, Zurich: gta, 2013

Topology in Landscape Architecture is a theoretical framework and tools to recast the potentials ... more Topology in Landscape Architecture is a theoretical framework and tools to recast the potentials of landscape architecture. Landscape architecture is understood as an integrative discipline with a deeply rooted tradition in shaping and preserving nature. The goal of establishing a «topological thinking» is to merge ecological concerns and a design approach that considers the basic factors of modeling a site: the understanding of both the terrain and the history of a place, its spatial qualities, the condition of its soil, the proper use of plants and building materials, and the adjustment to the expectations of its users while challenging aesthetic sensitivities.

Landscript 3: Topology. Topical Thoughts on the Contemporary Landscape, ed by Christophe Girot, Anette Freytag, Albert Kirchengast, Dunja Richter, Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2013

Landscript 3: Topology Topical Thoughts on the Contemporary Landscape Christophe Girot / Anette F... more Landscript 3: Topology
Topical Thoughts on the Contemporary Landscape
Christophe Girot / Anette Freytag / Albert Kirchengast / Dunja Richter (Hg.) (Bd. 3)
Christophe Girot / Albert Kirchengast (Hg.) (Reihe)

Contributions by:
Annemarie Bucher, Gion A. Caminada, Christophe Girot, Albert Kirchengast, Stefan Körner, Wilhelm Krull, Norbert Kühn, Hansjörg Küster, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Lothar Schäfer, Joseph Schwartz, Martin Seelis, Michael Seiler, Antje Stokman, Wulf Tessin.

How can an abstract term like “Topology” become pertinent and effective to landscape thinking today? There is a schism between the way landscape is understood scientifically or economically and the way the same place exists emotionally for people. This disparity calls for a change of approach. Topology, in this instance, can pay greater attention to deeper spatial, physical, poetic and philosophical values, embedded in a long tradition of designed nature. Its strength is to weave together different fields of action, improving the understanding of landscape as a cultural task with all its inherent beauty.

E-BOOK in German
Worüber sprechen wir heute, wenn wir das Wort „Landschaft“ verwenden? Was haben Schlagworte wie „ökologische Dienstleistung“, „Energie- und Infrastrukturlandschaft“, „Zwischenstadt“ oder „Neue Brache“ mit dem alltäglichen Lebensraum der Menschen zu tun? Landschaft sieht – und deutet – jeder anders, und nirgendwo drücken sich die Unklarheiten deutlicher aus als in der tiefen Kluft zwischen akademischem Diskurs und alltäglichem Verständnis. Dieses Buch soll die Aufmerksamkeit auf die räumlichen, physischen, aber auch poetischen und philosophischen Werte lenken, die in der langen Tradition der Gestaltung von und mit Natur eingebettet sind. Es soll eine „Landschaftstopologie“ entwickelt werden, die wieder auf ein „Ganzes“ abzielt, also die Gestaltung eines „sinnlichen“, wirtschaftlich und ökologisch tragbaren Lebensraums. Gestaltung meint dann aber, Form und Erleben – ästhetische Qualitäten – der einfachen Funktionalisierung überzuordnen, um an die Stärke und Schönheit alter Kulturlandschaften für die Gegenwart anzuknüpfen.

Mit Beiträgen von: Annemarie Bucher, Gion A. Caminada, Christophe Girot, Albert Kirchengast, Stefan Körner, Wilhelm Krull, Norbert Kühn, Hansjörg Küster, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Lothar Schäfer, Joseph Schwartz, Martin Seelis, Michael Seiler, Antje Stokman, Wulf Tessin.

The Gardens of La Gara. An 18th century estate in Geneva with gardens designed by Erik Dhont and a labyrinth by Markus Raetz, ed. by Anette Freytag, Scheidegger&Spiess, 2018

Contemporary and historic landscape design on an 18th-centruy estate near Geneva. Volume edited b... more Contemporary and historic landscape design on an 18th-centruy estate near Geneva. Volume edited by Anette Freytag.

Scheidegger & Spiess
Edited by Anette Freytag
1st edition, 2018
Hardback
380 pages, 240 color and 48 b/w illustrations
19.5 x 27.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-85881-802-7

La Gara is an 18th-century country estate in Jussy, a village near Geneva, Switzerland. The buildings have been carefully restored by Swiss architect Verena Best, who also added coherent interventions to the interior design. The renowned Belgian landscape designer Erik Dhont reinterpreted and subtly redesigned the gardens and surrounding grounds, completed by a palindrome-like labyrinth designed by Swiss artist Markus Raetz.

This new book tells the full story of the La Gara estate and illustrates its beauty. The essays by Anette Freytag, Verena Best-Mast, Erik A. de Jong, Erik Dhont, Éric Dumont, Leïla el-Wakil, Anette Freytag, Iris Lauterbach, Gaël Maridat, Rainer Michael Mason, Markus Raetz, Luc-Éric Revilliod, and Natalie Rilliet investigate various aspects of its preservation and restoration of buildings and gardens and the contemporary interventions. They highlight features such as the historic watering system for the gardens and the included fishponds and look at the specific Genevan garden tradition and characteristics of the rural landscape around Jussy with its biodiversity. Moreover, they contextualize La Gara with the “ferme ornée”, a villa with agricultural and ornamental features following ancient Roman models. The beautifully designed volume is rounded out with newly commissioned photographs by renowned Swiss photographer Georg Aerni.

Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2017

This is a book review of "Anette Freytag: Dieter Kienast. Stadt und Landschaft lesbar machen" by ... more This is a book review of "Anette Freytag: Dieter Kienast. Stadt und Landschaft lesbar machen" by Noël van Doofen.

Topiaria Helvetica, 2019

This is a book review of "Die Gärten von La Gara" (Ed. Anette Freytag) by Johannes Stoffler.

SRF2 Radio feature Kontext. Karin Salm talking to Anette Freytag about her book Dieter Kienast. Stadt und Landschaft lesbar machen, first broadcast May 12, 2016 , 2016

This radio feature was broadcast on the occasion of the publication of my PhD.

SRF Tagesgespräch. Barbara Peter talking to Anette Freytag and Raimund Rodewald. SRF 1, first broadcast August 23, 2018., 2018

This radio feature was broadcast on the occasion of the First Swiss Landscape Congress where I de... more This radio feature was broadcast on the occasion of the First Swiss Landscape Congress where I delivered the closing keynote address.
(landschaftskongress.ch - congrespaysage.fr)

Opening keynote to the International Conference From Garden Art to Landscape Architecture – Traditions, Re-Evaluations, and Future Perspectives, Herrenhausen Palace, September 14–15, 2018, Hanover, Germany, 2018

International Conference ‘Thinking the Contemporary Landscape. Positions and Oppositions, 2013

June 20, 2013 by Anette Freytag. The lecture presents crucial aspects of Swiss landscape archite... more June 20, 2013 by Anette Freytag.

The lecture presents crucial aspects of Swiss landscape architect Dieter Kienast’s work from the 1970s to the 1990s. Its goal is to illustrate how Kienast (1945-1998) searched for a possible reconciliation of science and memory in landscape architecture, thus giving important impulses for a reorientation of the profession.

Kienast’s projects aimed for a sensual experience of nature and the reintroduction of its symbolic reading and understanding. This occurred after a period in which nature was merely understood as an ecological system. Apart from being ‘nature’s advocate’, landscape architecture followed an emancipatory design paradigm focused on the practical daily use of open space. After receiving a diploma in landscape planning and a doctorate in plant sociology from the University of Kassel, Kienast carried out research on spontaneous urban vegetation and developed a new aesthetic for designing with nature in the city. He was able to go from a study and interpretation of spontaneous vegetation in the 1970s to making his work legible through an emblematic and symbolic use of plants.

In the 1980s Kienast used his concepts based on form to confront and oppose the wildlife gardening movement influenced by Swiss garden architecture. His search for forms that would make spatial and material qualities more conscious was influenced by the literature, art, and architecture of the day.

Some examples of these forms are presented in the lecture. Within this context, Kienast’s nature- and social science-oriented education went through several processes of reinterpretation. The question of whether his increasingly form-driven open spaces were suitable for daily use shows that Kienast successfully modified the emancipatory design paradigm of the Kassel School in his later projects – from practical to contemplative use, from daily life to aesthetic experience – while his subject-related focus remained constant.
Proponents of the Kassel School considered him to be little more than a “postmodern designer of shapes”, a label that more accurately applies to those of his imitators who adopted his vocabulary without considering whether it could be integrated in the landscape or not. Kienast’s projects are bound to space and consciousness; they embody the topological and phenomenological dimensions of landscape architecture.

Timothy E. Lenahan Memorial Lecture in Landscape Architecture, Yale School of Architecture, New Haven, USA, 2014

April 10, 2014 by Anette Freytag. In 2011 we launched the Topology Project together with Chris... more April 10, 2014 by Anette Freytag.

In 2011 we launched the Topology Project together with Christophe Girot and the Theory Lab of the Chair of Landscape Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). The aim of this project is to redefine the goals of the discipline of landscape architecture and to discuss the large socioeconomic impact landscape architecture might have on our current society. The project was launched because we detected a crisis in European landscape architecture. In our point of view, a schism exists between the way landscape is understood scientifically – as a functional normative network or an ecological system – and the way it exists cognitively, poetically, and emotionally for people.

The same schism exists in the current practice of European landscape architecture. Few offices merge ecological concerns with a design approach that takes into account the basic factors of modeling a site: The understanding of the terrain as well as the history of a place, its spatial qualities, the condition of its soil, the proper use of plants and building materials, and the adjustment to the expectations of its users while challenging aesthetic sensitivity.

Landscape architecture is obviously a form of complex knowledge. Through its interventions it is capable of making things visible that one does not see otherwise and, among other qualities, it has the potential to create designs of indeterminacy. These qualities shall be discussed in the lecture, with a focus on an analysis of recent examples of garden art and landscape architecture that embody the topological and phenomenological dimension of landscape architecture. This means that they are bound to space and consciousness. These qualities are considered to be fundamental to the discipline.

A major focus is put on the work of Swiss Landscape Architect Dieter Kienast because it mirrors the development of European landscape architecture between the 1970s and the 1990s, when a redefinition of the discipline took place. The goal of the lecture is to show how traditional skills may help the profession to face its current challenges.

Another important part of the lecture presents a special aspect of the Topology project and the results of the work of the Chair of Landscape Architecture at the ETH Zurich: It propagates a method of design that combines tools of modeling and visualization, so that it can respond to a specific terrestrial situation, defining fields of action over time that can merge on the plinth of a larger territorial continuity.