We are a nature-based design studio.
We design places for life.
All life.

We design places for life

SLA is an internationally renowned nature-based design studio. Together we are 130 landscape architects, biologists, anthropologists, and city planners. We design places for life. All life.

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We help people, cities, and nature

We design cities, public space, and nature on all scales: From city-wide masterplans to neighborhood pocket parks. From national biodiversity strategies to local citizens’ engagement processes. Our work helps people, cities, businesses, governments – and nature itself.

Explore our work here

Our design approach

We believe in a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to making livable and sustainable places. We combine deep anthropological knowledge and rigorous biological research with award-winning design expertise and high artistic ambitions.

As our client, we bring you along on our journey and invite you to join our mission, challenge our thinking, and expand our horizons. Together we learn, together we grow, and together we create the best possible projects.

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Our vision, mission & values

Our vision is to change the world through nature-based design solutions and enhance the quality of life in communities and the public realm.

Our mission is to deliver world-class and pioneering nature-based design solutions to the benefit of our clients, our end-users, and nature itself.

We are a learning and sharing organization, working in interdisciplinary teams to provide all-inclusive solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.

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Our vision & values We work for - and with - the coming generations.
Our vision & values We enhance life quality through sensuous and meaningful nature-based designs.

We help solve today's biggest challenges

Our projects are never isolated masterpieces. Instead, they form a continuous ambition to solve some of the biggest challenges facing our Earth today: From climate crisis and biological mass extinction to social inequality and the growing gap between humans and nature.

Explore our solutions to seven global challenges

Living in a New Climate How can cities respond to extreme weather in the new climate?
A Matter of Biodiversity How do we design places that put all things living - humans, plants, animals - first?
Safe Cities How can we design safe and secure cities that are still open, inviting, and democratic?
Empowerment of Aesthetics How can we design aesthetic nature experiences that reconnect man and nature?

We are a sharing and learning organization

Sharing knowledge and innovation is central to us. Only in co-creation with clients, stakeholders, and citizens can we design the best possible places for life.

We initiate and engage in research projects from internal white papers to external collaborations with universities, NGOs, businesses, and intergovernmental agencies. We apply the latest research in all our projects to create state-of-the-art design solutions.

Explore our research and development

Why Darkness Matters: Acknowledging the Rhythms of Nature

When did you last see a starry night sky? For city-dwellers, this experience may feel like a distant memory. Our extensive use of artificial light has turned ‘darkness’ into a diminishing phenomenon – not only affecting stargazers but also the health of humans, wildlife, and trees. As Pernille Bech-Larsen, lighting designer at SLA, will unfold, we have plenty of good reasons to let a little more darkness into our cities.

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The Values of Nature:
A Need for a New Driver of Urban Development

Imagine your quality of life being just as dependent on urban development as on social media. What would that lead to?  The answer to that question depends on the drivers of urban development. 

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Our economies, livelihoods, and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature

These were the opening lines of Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta’s report “The Economics of Biodiversity” and were also at the center of the conversation our CEO, Mette Skjold, had with Dasgupta at the UIA World Congress of Architects CPH 2023.

They agreed that we, as humans, depend on nature – not only as a source of resources and wealth but also as the foundation for our physical and mental well-being. We are not separate from nature. We are nature.

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Fundamentals

Come explore the fundamentals of our office together with us.

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Sakuteiki
– The Book of Garden

Sakuteki – The Book of Garden is a manual, a textbook for Japanese gardeners in the 11th century. This introduction sounds like this: “In making the garden, you should first understand the overall principles. According…

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White

“In the beginning was chaos. While the universe began to expand after Big Bang it also decreased in temperature. It became more and more ordered. With that order, the Universe changed its background colour toward…

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Atmosphere

“Atmosphere is a thin film of enclosure around our world. Without our vaporous, water filled atmosphere, life on Earth – or indeed life anywhere – would not exist. But atmosphere is also what you sense…

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Sound

“Sound. The soundtrack of our lives often passes us by without us noticing. But I have begun noticing the poetry of the noises around me. The rhythm and the song of the poet. The calling…

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Roots

“A tree consists of three parts: Its foliage, its trunk, and its roots. All three parts are important for the aesthetic feeling of nature. But of these three I find the roots most intriguing, most…

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Essay: The Bark Room

“Bark is both living and dead, growing and cracking, a shell, a protective layer and an integral part of the wood’s tissue. It’s the bark structure and the way it peels, which separates the different…

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Mist

Mist is a phenomenon caused by small droplets of water suspended in air. Physically, it is an example of a dispersion. It is most commonly seen where warm, moist air meets sudden cooling, such as…

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