Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Ecological Landscapes

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architect.
Photograph by Etta Gerdes, 2005, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Montréal.

From 11 May to 30 July 2006, the Canadian Centre for Architecture in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Montréal presents Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Ecological Landscapes, an exhibition in the Octagonal Gallery on the work of Vancouver landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Featuring material from the newly completed Oberlander Archive at the CCA and photographs by Etta Gerdes, the exhibition demonstrates Oberlander's pioneering vision of socially conscious and environmentally sustainable landscape design.


Library Square, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architect.
Photograph by Etta Gerdes, 2005, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Montréal.

Curated by Robert Desaulniers, CCA Head Archivist, the exhibition highlights selected projects by Cornelia Hahn Oberlander that have been executed in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Yellowknife, and Berlin over a period of more than 30 years. Drawings and writings from the CCA's Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Archive, as well as photographs taken by the young German photographer Etta Gerdes in 2005, situate each project within the larger context of Oberlander's lifelong philosophical and practical approach to design. Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Ecological Landscapes also features commentary and insights from the landscape architect herself.

One of North America's most accomplished and celebrated landscape architects, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander has shaped Canadian cities with parks and roof gardens in a style all her own. Oberlander's simple yet technically innovative designs express a deep commitment to environmental sustainability and quality of life. Natural and architectural elements are seamlessly integrated, creating healthy and enjoyable spaces that respond to the needs of inhabitants and bring nature into densely built up urban areas. Her projects capture the ecological and social specificities of a site, while referring to the larger context of the Canadian landscape. Indeed, site plays a crucial role in the development of her designs: as she herself says, landscape architecture "must be viewed holistically in terms of plant relationships as well as the genius loci, or spirit of the place."


Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architect.
Photograph by Etta Gerdes, 2005, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Montréal.

The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Archive
In January 2006, the CCA received an extensive body of material from Cornelia Hahn Oberlander related to some of her major institutional projects. This acquisition follows an initial donation of material in 2002 and completes the CCA's Oberlander archive. Spanning 50 years of Oberlander's still-active career, the archive now comprises more than 2000 conceptual and design drawings, as well as photographs, plans, and documentation pertaining to her botanical and technical research. The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Archive also complements existing holdings at the CCA, such as the archives of Canadian architects Richard Henriquez, Arthur Erickson, and the firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg, with whom she has worked.

Born in Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany in 1921, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander studied at Harvard University with Walter Gropius and settled in Vancouver in the 1950s, where she continues to practice. She has collaborated with such internationally acclaimed architects as Renzo Piano, Arthur Erickson, and Moshe Safdie on a wide range of public projects in North America and Europe. Founded in 1953, the firm Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architect has developed a highly varied expertise: children's playgrounds, beginning with the creative playground at Expo 67 in Montréal; roof gardens and hanging planters, as in the award-winning landscape for the Canadian Chancery in Washington, D.C. (1989); native plant communities like the Taiga Garden at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa (1988); and environmental planning and design, such as the C.K. Choi Institute of Asian Research in Vancouver (1995). Oberlander's most recent project is the roof garden of the new Canadian Embassy in Berlin (2005).

In parallel to this exhibition, a series of 34 photographs of Oberlander's work by Etta Gerdes, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut and entitled Picturing Landscape Architecture: Projects of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander as seen by Etta Gerdes, will be presented at the Elliott Louis Gallery in Vancouver (6 - 25 June 2006); the Legislative Assembly Building in Yellowknife (9 - 21 July 2006); the Zentrum für Gartenkunst und Landschaftskultur at Schloss Dyck in Jüchen, Germany (17 October - 20 November 2006); the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum in Berlin, Germany (16 November 2006 - 7 January 2007); and the Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina, Braunschweig, Germany (6 May to 7 June 2007).

The Goethe-Institut will produce a catalogue on the work of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander seen through the photographs of Etta Gerdes. Bilder kanadischer Landschaftsarchitektur/ Picturing Landscape Architecture (colour, 112 pages) is being published in English and German by Callwey, Munich. Edited by Mechtild Manus of the Goethe-Institut and Canadian architecture critic Lisa Rochon, the volume includes essays by Rochon and German garden critic Cordula Hamann, and an interview with Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Ann Thomas, curator of photography at the National Gallery of Canada, situates the photographs of Etta Gerdes within the context of German nature photography.

CCA : The Canadian Centre for Architecture: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/7880.html

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