01

TERESA GALI-IZARD:
THE LANGUAGE
OF LANDSCAPE
Teresa Gali-Izard, associate professor at the University of Virginia and
principal of Barcelona-based studio Arquitectura Agronomia, creates work
that seeks to enact the hidden potential of places through the integration
of living systems and an understanding of beauty as process.
—
Interview Liam Mouritz
 02 01
The Sant Joan Landfill
Regeneration project,
designed in collaboration
with Batlle i Roig Architects,
created a series of terraces
to facilitate landfill gas
extraction and remediate the
soil through plantings. Photo:
Jordi Surroca

02
Parc de los primeros pasos in
Caracas, Venezuela, designed
in collaboration with Arup,
RSHP and Carolina Acevedo
and Héctor Rangel from FPHC,
is a parking lot transformed
into a park. Photo: Carolina
Acevedo and Héctor Rangel
Teresa Gali-Izard, associate
professor at the University
of Virginia and principal of
Arquitectura Agronomia

T
he work of Teresa Gali-Izard embraces the messiness
of landscapes, allowing them to evolve over time
according to environmental and managerial
dynamics. Here, the verb “gardening” and its suggestion of a
gradual tending to a place takes precedence over “landscape
design.” The work of the designer is left simply to the
establishment of a structure of choreographed interventions
from which something resembling a landscape eventually
emerges. Liam Mouritz spoke with Gali-Izard about design as
maintenance and landscape across contexts.
Liam Mouritz — Your projects could be described as
being generated out of conditions of scarcity, both in an
environmental and economic sense. This idea seems very
relevant to Australia, where we are often faced with a dry
climate and less-fertile soils. However, I think we carry with
us the baggage of our colonial past; an attraction toward the
English picturesque and water-intensive landscapes.
Teresa Gali-Izard — In my opinion, there are many histories
of landscape architecture. I come from the Mediterranean
vernacular culture of landscape. This is a landscape system
made up of terraces that can harvest the water and control
the soil – is this landscape or is it landscape architecture?
It is important to understand that my personal context
INTERVIEW
has nothing to do with the Anglo-Saxon understanding of
landscape. I think we need to start being a bit more precise in
order to send the right message – that landscape architecture
is not about the picturesque. In Thinking Through Landscape
Augustin Berque talks about landscape as either a “gift,”
or as a “product of labour.” I understand landscape as the
latter. In the Mediterranean we are creative people, we lack
resources, which forces us to build something from nothing.
So, in each place, I try to visualize what the potential for
such a place might be, even for places that have no soil or no
water. Right now, I am interested in focusing on these kinds
of landscapes.
LM — Your work showcases roughness, which is refreshing
when compared to many of today’s landscape projects.
I suspect many contemporary landscape projects are
designed specifically around how best to spread an
image across social media. Can you share your own
aesthetic approach?
TGI — My goal is to find a new kind of built environment and
an aesthetic that is able to include the logic of living systems.
I am obsessed with erasing the line. With breaking the line.
With making everything continuous. The way that living
systems work is not through [clear] lines but through

LANDSCAPE ISSUE 158 046 — 047

03
a continuous transition. I am trying to break the
traditional way that people see nature in cities. This can be
a challenge with my clients. Each time I present a project,
my client doesn’t understand what I am doing, they ask me,
“Why don’t you talk about people?” Instead, I talk about
roots, the conditions of the trees and the shrubs. Our office
is the voice of the other in this built environment. And of
course, this gives me a lot of trouble. Clients don’t want to
know about this complexity in many cases.
Of course, I don’t want to be isolated from the world of
landscape architecture, but I am critical of my peers in this
regard. I hate the idea that we are using living creatures
as objects. Often [such ideas] are the products of the
images [that we produce]. So instead I [prefer to] draw the
architecture of trees.
To convince clients of the value of living systems is a big
challenge. Perhaps the solution is to have amazing gardeners.
To redefine the figure of the gardener. I am very interested
in management and maintenance. The problem with some
projects is that there is no gardener. My entry for the Valencia
Central Park competition presents my ideal scenario for
this. This is a park that has no form. It has some rules that
are related to maintenance and would be implemented by a
group of gardeners. I would love to be the director of a park
like this, to implement an adaptive management practice
over a period of twenty years – managing all the machines
and resources in a creative way.
My approach follows rule-based systems, which gives rise
to many possible forms. I think that parametric systems of
design are the next step in our field. Parametric design is for
landscape architecture, not for architecture. It is not about
the creation of form, but about relationships. It’s a diagram
that helps us to balance and manage the resources or lack of
resources. It’s like a game. I am more interested in designing
games, relationships and management of resources than
I am in designing places. This is the direction that I think
landscape architecture should go. But this implies a totally
new way of understanding the profession. It is far away from
architecture and closer to ecology, resource management
or agriculture.
LM — How do you see the role of collaboration in your work?
TGI — Collaboration can be very powerful if a real
conversation is had. I think you need a leader who is
 04 03
Working with architect Lola
Domènech, Arquitectura
Agronomia transformed a
sidewalk in Barcelona with a
permeable paving of concrete
and grass. Photo: José Hevia

04
Felipe VI Park, designed in
collaboration with Ábalos
and Sentkiewicz Architects,
is a park on the rooftop of a
train station in Logrono. The
density of the shrub plantings
increases relative to the slope
gradient, acting as a form
of erosion control. Photo:
José Hevia

05
A formless park: Arquitectura
Agronomia’s entry for the
Valencia Central Park design
competition, held in 2010,
was conceived as a series of
rules and relationships. Image:
Arquitectura Agronomia

INTERVIEW
05

generous, curious, will take risks and has an open vision.

The problem with architects as project leaders is that often
they will fix onto an image very quickly, which will stay there
forever. We work in a totally different way. We give space
to the logics of the living; the ecological dynamics and as a
result, you never know where you are going to end up.

LM — Can you tell us about some of your influences?

TGI — Jacques Simon has been my mentor. He was a hyper-

productive person, always drawing and coming up with
ideas. He is not very well known, but has influenced many
European landscape architects including Michel Corajoud
and Alexandre Chemetoff. He was very provocative,
working with farmers and students, playing with the snow
and the wind. He was deeply involved in this very intense
relationship with the living. He has been a big inspiration for
me, but was much more of an artist whereas I am more of an
engineer. I try to be a bit more rigorous, bring a bit more of a
scientific approach to my projects. I have also been inspired
by Francis Hallé, a French biologist. He has a book, In Praise
of Plants, which features amazing drawings of plants.

LANDSCAPE ISSUE 158 048 — 049

Copyright of Landscape Architecture Australia is the property of Architecture Media Pty Ltd
and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without
the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or
email articles for individual use.