[Behind the Scenes of World Landscape Architecture]
This article provides background for my writing at WLA and explains how I came to the various ideas and trends. You can read “What are the Landscape Architecture Trends for 2026?” at WLA.
As Editor of WLA, I have been providing a landscape trends article for the past 6-7 years that predicts the year’s trends. Often, it is hard to predict trends for an industry where projects can take months and years to complete. However, I seek to provide a list that highlights key trends, offers insights, and stimulates conversation among landscape schools, firms, and organisations.
This year, the focus is on Climate Adaptation, AI, Computational Design, Biodiversity, Wellbeing, Pressure on Professional Organisations (AILA, LI, RIBA, etc.), Greater Face-to-Face Consultation, and Indigenous, Local and Traditional Knowledge (ITLK).
Many of these ideas and trends I came across through attending events, reading research, and conversations with practitioners, academics, and others. These trends will often continue well beyond 2026, as landscape architecture projects can take years, and the ideas are not realised or seen until they are presented or published as a concept or a built project.
I think the hottest trend is Artificial Intelligence, driven by media attention, investment, and the seemingly never-ending rollout of AI products, apps, or plugins. There is also some debate about AI taking jobs, the environmental impact (server farms/data centres), the ethics of the sourcing of training data, eliminating the design process, and creating unrealistic client expectations. I think we are in the early days, but it does remind me very much of the 1998-2001 Web/E-commerce boom (watch the documentary Startup.com to see some similarities). This feeling that we are in a similar tech boom, along with the various geopolitical issues, also leads me to believe that we are in a period of increasing uncertainty, as I wrote in my blog post 2026 Business Trends for Landscape Architects.
I hope this provides a short behind-the-scenes look at the WLA post – What are the Landscape Architecture Trends for 2026?”