Abstract: Landscape architecture is first of all about the making of gardens, parks and landscapes. This sequence of plan types also refers by and large to the historical development of the discipline. From the end of the 19th century on, for the first time in history, the landscape as such became object of planning and design; the design of the landscape as public space. Landscape architects got more and more involved into the planning and design of rural, urban and infralandscapes in the long run.
A second development in the 20th century is the gradual transition from profession to discipline. In this transition, research plays a key role. Landscape architecture as a design discipline is still largely practice driven, not like science that is mainly theory driven. In the second part of the 20th century, research was introduced that also resulted in a start of theory development at a limited scale. With the emergence of theory, research became more important and started slowly to play a role in the development of the discipline at large.
We have distinguished three types of research; design as research, research in design and research of design. In our view, research in landscape architecture has different functions and roles; from a role in practice to theory development. The 4th IASME/WSEAS Conference on LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE — 2011 Angers, FRANCE methodology is largely based on 'case-study research'.
The conclusion is that research plays a role in different aspects of the discipline. First of all in practice; precedent analysis, research on evidence and postoccupancy evaluation (POE) will become more and more integrated into the daily design process. Secondly research is needed in theory development and critique. Both can have a major influence on the development of the discipline as a whole, it will eventually lead to a development towards knowledge-based design.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Martin van den Toorn is a landscape architect who was educated at Wageningen University and the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley where he did his Master's in Landscape architecture. After finishing his studies he worked for almost 15 years at various research institutes (De Dorschkamp, Staring Centre, Alterra) of Wageningen University on research projects dealing with the role of landscape architecture in landscape development at the long run.
In the beginning of the 90-ies he took up a teaching position at the Dept. of Landscape architecture at Wageningen University. He taught design studio's in the regular program and the International Course Landscape Architecture that was especially meant for foreign students. At the start of the millennium, the European Bachelor's / Master's system was introduced in Delft and he was asked to join the Faculty of Architecture in Delft to assist in setting up an international program and research in landscape architecture. From 2006 on he teaches a series of seminars on the relation between theory and practice in landscape architecture in the Master's program at the National School of Landscape architecture (ENSP) at Versailles.
His research interest is first of all on theory and theory development in landscape architecture and the role of research. A second focus is on visualisation, drawing and representation in landscape architecture and urban design. In the academic year 2009-2010 he spent his sabbatical year for the first part in Europe (ENSP, Versailles) and the second part in the US (UC Berkeley, Dept. of Landscape architecture) working on his own research and lecturing and travelling through the Western US and Canada (Montreal).