Did you know that Norway was the first country in Europe to train landscape architects? Have you ever wondered who it is who plans and designs outdoor spaces like gardens, parks, city squares and cemeteries?

In 2019 it will be 100 years since landscape architecture was taught for the first time at Ås, just south of Oslo. At the National Museum – Architecture, we are marking this anniversary with the exhibition OUTDOOR MATTERS.

The exhibition “bursts” the frame of the museum, spreading both between and beyond the rooms, just as landscape architecture does. In the Vault, you can immerse yourself in a sensory landscape. In the Pavilion, you are invited to enter a playful landscape labyrinth installation. Layer upon layer of material from the archives – historical drawings, recent photographs and various printworks – reveal the importance of the landscape around us. You will learn about the pioneers of landscape architecture from 1900 to the 1960s, figures such as Olav L. Moen, Karen Reistad, Torborg Z. Frølich, Røhne & Strøm, and Grindaker & Gabrielsen.

OUTDOOR MATTERS reminds us that it takes time to build with greenery, and that the green revolution has been quietly unfolding for a hundred years. The exhibition turns up the volume on the subdued voices of the profession’s early practitioners and speaks loud and clear in favour of building communities on green principles.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and the National Museum.