The Private Gardens of the Austrian Landscape Architect Josef Oskar Wladar (1900-2002)
Since the year 2003 the Institute of Landscape Architecture at the BOKU - Universität für Bodenkultur Vienna - has owned the legacy of the almost forgotten Austrian landscape architect Josef Oskar Wladar.
During the 70 years of his professional activity Wladar has designed about 400 datable open spaces. Nearly half of these projects are private gardens.
Although the designing of private gardens constitute the largest part of construction projects for landscapes architects in the 20th century, this typology of open spaces remains insufficiently researched up to today. Private gardens are especially subject to fashion trends and are potentially endangered monuments.
For these reasons I will present a number of private gardens from the legacy of Wladar. Well documented projects are arranged in chronological order to show the development trends in the work of Wladar. Making the design principles visible – in dealing with the site or in the frequency of its use – we get an understanding of the working methods of this landscape architect. In particularly due the preservation of his legacy, Wladar is a representative of the profession of the Austrian landscape architects of the 20th century.
Anja Seliger has received the degree Diplomingenieurin in Horticultural Sciences and Landscape Architecture fromHumboldt Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universität Dresden. She has gained practical experience in the field of production, use of plants and horticultural management in Berlin, Hagen and Dresden, Germany and in the field of preservation of historical gardens in Zurich, Switzerland. Since 2009 Seliger is a scientific staff member at the Institute of Landscape Architecture at BOKU, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. Besides pursuing her own doctoral research of Austrian landscape architecture in the 20th century, she has published two articles about the historical use of perennials in Austria in Die Gartenkunst. In addition she teaches master courses in landscape history.