The imprint of Günther Vogt - the 2025 Sir Graham Jellicoe Award recipient

Swiss landscape architect and educator Günther Vogt, born in 1957 in Liechtenstein, is the latest recipient of the esteemed Sir Graham Jellicoe Award – as presented at the IFLA World Congress by President Bruno Marques in Nantes, France in September.

Vogt is regarded as an intellectual leader within the field of landscape architecture. Furthermore, he has given more than 200 talks mainly in an academic context.

An excellent profile of Vogt’s life and career appeared in 2023 in an article in ETH-News titled ‘An advocate of public space’. This opened by describing Vogt as “one of the most sought-after landscape architects of our time” and credited him with “opening the eyes of an entire generation of architects to public space”.

2023 was the year he gained his emeritus as a Professor of Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich, after being with the Institute for Landscape and Urban Studies within the Department of Architecture there since 2005.

VOGT Landschaftsarchitekten (vogt-la.com) emerged at the turn of the century in Zurich, following an office partnership with Dieter Kienas. The international firm now also has offices in Berlin, London and Paris.

The VOGT website features more than 160 news articles and almost 150 projects. Landmark projects include the design of the open spaces of the Tate Modern in London, the Allianz Arena in Munich and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt as well as the Masoala Rain Forest Hall in Zurich.

It also showcases VOGT’s Case  Studio, a platform for exhibitions, debates and research that provides the employees of VOGT an interface between the practice and theoretical and investigative studies and that is an instrumental part of their opportunities for training and further education.

As highlighted by the International Federation of Landscape Architects at the IFLA World Congress, Vogt is known for

High-profile collaborations with architects, artists, sociologists or environmental specialists (which) not only result in remarkable and generous projects that spark discussion about our relationship to nature, but also have the potential to change the general perception of the profession.

His early training at Gartenbauschule Oeschberg, a Cantonal Horticultural School in Switzerland, is often referred to for providing the practical basis for his intensive landscape work – with an acknowledgement that his knowledge of vegetation and his skills in cultivation continue to be cornerstones.

It has also been noted that all of the different facets of Vogt’s work are infused with a passion for seeking new ways to read, interpret, and describe landscapes – coupled with a quest to find answers to questions about future forms of urban co-existence.

A trail of books

A series of publications have been instrumental in carrying forward the significant theoretical contributions Vogt has made to the profession.

Books authored or collaborated on by Günther Vogt are displayed on the VOGT website – with the bulk of them coming from Lars Müller Publishers

This association dates back to Vogt being featured in Nature Design – Von Inspiration zu Innovation in 2007, through to Mutation and Morphosis – Landscape as Aggregate in 2020.

Taken together each monograph reflects Vogt’s trail-setting ways – equally tied to the entity that is VOGT.

In Miniature and Panorama (updated edition 2012) he describes the theoretical foundation on which the successful projects of Vogt Landscape Architects are based. Alice Foxley’s Distance and Engagement: Walking, Thinking and Making Landscape (2010; out of stock) is a companion volume that collects together results of VOGT’s “field trips,” research projects, and practical implementations.

Then in Landscape as a Cabinet of Curiosities – In Search of a Position (2015) Vogt offers deeper insights into his thought and work.

In 2021 publishers Birkhäuser brought out 250 Things A Landscape Architect Should Know, a book that drew thoughts from 50 sources from Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia – including Vogt – to impart some of the complex and dynamic nature of the discipline. This is one of his pages:

If your interest in Günther Vogt has been piqued, you could:

Other honours received by Günther Vogt include the Schulthess Garden Prize from the Swiss Heritage Society in 2010 for outstanding achievements in the field of horticulture, and the Prix Meret Oppenheim, an award for Swiss artists, in 2012.

In 2018 he received an Honorary doctorate from the University of Liechtenstein. In addition he was selected by the editors of Landezine for their 2025 Honour Award announced in June.

Learn more about past IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award recipients

Since 2011 the IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award (SGJA) has been bestowed annually, after initially being launched in 2004 on a quadrennial basis. This is the highest honour that the International Federation of Landscape Architects can bestow upon a landscape architect.

Geoffrey Jellicoe (1910–1996) was a founding member (1929) and then President of the Institute of Landscape Architects (now the Landscape Institute) and was knighted for services to Landscape Architecture in 1979. He served IFLA as President from its inception in 1948 to 1954. He was a trained architect, town planner, landscape architect and garden designer, but his prime interest was in landscape and garden design. In 1994, he was given the Royal Horticultural Society’s highest award, the Victoria Medal of Honour.

The Award recognises a living landscape architect whose lifetime achievements and contributions have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of society and the environment and on the promotion of the profession of landscape architecture. The award is bestowed annually on an academic, public or private practitioner whose work and achievements are respected internationally.

The 2025 SGJA International Jury was chaired by Peter Zöch from Austria and was composed a member from each of the five IFLA regions worldwide: Finzi Saidi (Africa), Alessandro Filla Rosaneli (Americas), Dorothy Tang (Asia Pacific), Anna Lambertini (Europe) and Nayla Al Akl (Middle East). Ziying Tang was the guest member of the jury, and the Award’s Secretariat, which oversees all aspects of the Award, was directed by Gareth Doherty.

To learn more about the 17 Award recipients since 2004, listed below, go to IFLA’s Sir George Jellicoe Award page.

2025 – Günther Vogt

2024 – James Corner

2023 – YoungSun Jung

2022 – Adriaan Guezze – LAA story link

2021 – Dr. Jala Makhzoumi – LAA story link

2020 – Kongjian Yu – LAA story link

2019 – Kathryn Gustafson – LAA story link

2018 – Prof Anne Whiston Spirn – LAA story link

2017 – Dirk Sijmons

2016 – Peter Lat

2015 – Mario Schjetnan

2014 – Sun Xiao Xiang

2013 – Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles

2012  – Mihály Möcsényi

2011 – Cornelia Hahn Oberlander

2009 – Prof. Bernard Lassus

2005 – Peter Walker

IFLA World Congress, #Around-the-worldStephen Olsen