Between Research and Design: The Evolution of the Journal of Landscape Architecture

This article explores the evolution of the Journal of Landscape Architecture (JoLA). We identify the ambitions that led to the journal’s establishment and the ways in which a desire to bridge theory and practice led to a particular editorial programme rooted in research articles, design criticism, and visual methods specific to landscape architecture. Although JoLA is a peer-reviewed platform for landscape architecture, its considerations nevertheless overlap with related disciplines, revealing the existence of a recognition for an expanded field of landscape architecture. The journal acknowledges the diversity of the discipline; both as a matter of professional practice and academic research. This tension between defining the theories, practices, and methods that constitute a discipline, and the diversity that gives it richness and enables innovation, continues to inform the conception and development of the journal and presents particular challenges to its editorial aspirations.