Germany is the site of a great deal of very exciting landscape architecture. And I mean very exciting. From aesthetics to concepts there's a lot of new things that have gone on in the last 10-15 years there, as well as exciting things happening today. Sure, there's still a lot of boring stuff there (think windswept plazas with striped paving patterns in muted colors) but a lot of it is frighteningly interesting.
All cultural rationale aside, this is possibly because Germany (like other European countries) uses a competition system to decide the designers of many public and institutional projects. This system allows for small offices (or individuals) to enter and to win projects that would be completely impossible in the United States. One could start an office in Germany by winning one competition, and many do. Is it possible that because the system encourages many small, progressive offices to work in landscape that the aesthetics are more interesting, and the themes more challenging and provocative because they rely on an open system rather than a closed one?
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