Landscape architecture is the design of the places where we live, work, play, and connect with nature.
From neighbourhood parks and public plazas to streets, trails, campuses, gardens, waterfronts, and private developments, landscape architects help shape the spaces between buildings—and the experiences people have in them.
Landscape architects look at the whole picture. We consider how a place works, how it feels, how people move through it, how it connects to the surrounding community and landscape, and how it can support plants, wildlife, water, and healthy ecosystems.
What do landscape architects do?
Landscape architects work with people, communities, governments, developers, engineers, architects, ecologists, and many other professionals to plan and design outdoor spaces. LA's lead projects and collaborate with other professionals to deliver complex projects.
Their work can include:
- Parks and public spaces – designing places for recreation, gathering, play, events, and everyday enjoyment.
- Streets and transportation corridors – creating safer, greener, and more welcoming streets and connections for walking, cycling, transit, and driving.
- Trails and natural areas – planning routes and spaces that connect people with nature while protecting ecological and cultural resources.
- Residential and private landscapes – designing gardens, yards, shared outdoor spaces, and landscapes around homes and other private developments.
- Schools, campuses, and healthcare environments – creating outdoor spaces that support learning, wellness, accessibility, and community.
- Water and stormwater management – integrating rain gardens, wetlands, ponds, natural drainage, and other approaches that help manage water and reduce flooding.
- Climate resilience and sustainability – designing landscapes that respond to heat, drought, extreme weather, changing water conditions, and other effects of a changing climate.
- Community planning and engagement – working with communities to understand local priorities, histories, needs, and aspirations and translate them into meaningful places.
- Landscape conservation and restoration – protecting and restoring natural systems, cultural landscapes, and important places.
Landscape architects are also involved in the practical side of creating places. Depending on the project, they may develop plans and specifications, coordinate with other professionals, prepare construction documents, manage projects, oversee construction, and help ensure that designs become successful, lasting places.
Shaping Manitoba's landscapes
Landscape architecture has an important role to play in Manitoba.
Our landscapes are shaped by dramatic seasonal changes, prairie and forest ecosystems, rivers and wetlands, urban growth, agriculture, and the histories and cultures of the people who have cared for these lands for generations.
Landscape architects help bring these considerations together to create places that are healthy, resilient, accessible, inclusive, and meaningful.
Whether it is a neighbourhood park, a downtown street, a new community, a backyard, a trail through a natural area, or a large regional landscape, landscape architecture helps shape the places that make up our everyday lives.
Landscape architecture is about creating better places for people, communities, and the environment—today and for generations to come.