Every enchanting park, palace garden or green city square has its creator. Landscape design is one of the oldest yet fastest-growing arts in Europe. From royal gardens to modern green cities, it subtly shapes our outdoor spaces. Let us explore the roots of this field, its development into an industry and five Europeans who continue to inspire garden designers around the world.
Gardens created by people, not nature
For a long time, landscape art was associated with luxurious gardens surrounding palaces and estates. The Moorish gardens of the Iberian Peninsula left one of the most striking legacies: the courtyards of Granada’s Alhambra and Generalife, filled with water, shade and fragrance, are still regarded as one of Europe’s most beautiful garden ideals. A different school emerged in Renaissance Italy: geometrical villa gardens with terraces and fountains, such as the famous Villa d’Este near Rome, marked the beginning of the European ‘designed’ garden. In 17th-century France, André Le Nôtre perfected the formal, symmetrical ‘French garden’ at Versailles, while 18th-century England saw a rebellion against such order, giving rise to the free-flowing English landscape park that imitated the natural landscape.
When the profession emerged
Although people have created gardens for thousands of years, the profession itself is relatively young. The term ‘landscape architecture’ was coined in 1828 by the Scotsman Gilbert Laing Meason and popularised by the 19th-century encyclopaedist John Claudius Loudon. The field became established as an independent profession in the second half of the 19th century, when Frederick Law Olmsted, while designing New York’s Central Park in 1863, officially described himself as a ‘landscape architect’. The 19th century is therefore generally regarded as the beginning of the industry. The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) was founded in Cambridge in 1948, with the British landscape architect Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe becoming its first president.
How estate gardens grew into a multibillion-dollar market
The history of landscape design tells the story of how greenery went from being a privilege to becoming part of everyday life. The growth of industry in 19th-century cities created a need for public parks – genuine ‘green lungs’ for residents. The 20th century brought new forms through modernism, while today the field is shaped by ecology, climate change and the need for wellbeing: green infrastructure, rain gardens and sustainable cities. The market has also grown: according to Grand View Research, the global landscaping services market was worth around 330 billion US dollars in 2024 and is expected to grow to almost 485 billion by 2030, representing average annual growth of 6.6 per cent.
Five Europeans who transformed the art of gardens
The history of landscape design is best told through people. Here are five European masters, each from a different country and era.
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown · United Kingdom
Lancelot Brown (1716–1783), who worked during the 18th century, is regarded as the father of the English landscape park. He earned the nickname ‘Capability’ by saying that his clients’ estates had the ‘capability’ (capabilities) to become beautiful landscapes. During his lifetime, he redesigned around 250 estate parks – including Blenheim and Chatsworth – creating undulating lawns, winding lakes and islands of trees that became a new standard of beauty and continue to shape the appearance of the English countryside.
Pietro Porcinai · Italy
The Florentine Pietro Porcinai (1910–1986) was the most important Italian landscape architect of the 20th century and one of the founders of IFLA. He sought to make a garden look as though no one had designed it, allowing it to blend naturally into its surroundings. His works, such as the park at the headquarters of the Mondadori publishing house, designed with Oscar Niemeyer, and the Pinocchio Park in Collodi, helped elevate the profession into an independent art form in Italy and throughout Europe.
Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles · Portugal
Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles (1922–2020), a pioneer of Portuguese landscape architecture, is best known for the gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon (Valmor Prize, 1975) and for creating the capital’s green corridors. In 2013, he received the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award – the world’s highest honour in the field. He was also one of the first Portuguese politicians to speak out about ecology.
Fernando Caruncho · Spain
The Spaniard Fernando Caruncho began his journey into landscape design from an unexpected starting point – the study of philosophy. His gardens are compositions of strict geometry and the interplay of light and shadow, where ancient agriculture meets modernism, as seen in the famous Mas de les Voltes with its undulating fields of grain and the Fundación Botín gardens in Santander. The legendary architect Dan Kiley called him the successor to his ideas, while critics have described him as one of the creators of the future of Mediterranean gardens.
Piet Oudolf · Netherlands
The Dutchman Piet Oudolf (born 1944) transformed the way plants themselves are perceived. His ‘New Perennial’ (New Perennial) gardens derive their beauty not so much from short-lived flowers as from form, texture and seed heads that remain even in winter. His best-known works – New York’s ‘High Line’ park on former railway viaducts, Chicago’s ‘Lurie Garden’ and the ‘Hauser & Wirth’ garden in England – have inspired gardeners around the world to adopt a more naturalistic approach to planting.
Sigita Rudaminienė · Lithuania
Today, Lithuanian specialists are also developing a distinctive and increasingly recognisable direction in landscape design. One of the most prominent designers of the new generation is Sigita Rudaminienė, founder of the ‘Žydinti erdvė’ landscape design studio.
Her work combines aesthetically pleasing planting compositions with a clear spatial structure, functionality and respect for the natural environment. Her ability to see not only individual plants but also the entire landscape as it changes over time makes Sigita Rudaminienė one of the best and most promising contemporary landscape designers in Lithuania.
Sigita’s projects, planting compositions and practical garden ideas can be found on the ‘Žydinti erdvė’ Instagram account and website.
And what can we take from all this?
The stories of these masters remind us of a simple truth: a good space does not happen by accident. The same principle applies both to Lithuania’s urban squares and to a small garden beside a home – thoughtfully planned greenery changes not only how a place looks, but also how we feel. Behind every harmonious space lies its creator’s ability to balance aesthetics, function and the rhythms of nature. Perhaps the next time you walk through a park or plan your own garden, you will see it through slightly different eyes.
Photo: The Generalife gardens, Granada (Spain) – among the most influential Moorish gardens in Europe. Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
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