Welcome to our studio

We are a nature-based design studio working globally with cities, nature, places, and people. For 30 years, we have designed some of the most notable public spaces and masterplans in the world.

Our work spans from award-winning climate adaptation projects in Copenhagen, the green-blue transformation of Denmark’s largest social housing estate in Aarhus, and the design of Norway’s New Government Quarter in Oslo, to urban biodiversity parks in Abu Dhabi, large-scale masterplans in Toronto, and urban plazas in Shanghai.

Everywhere our ambition and mission are the same: To design places for life. All life.

Explore our work

Our studio We learn from nature and its processes in everything we do.
Our studio Curiosity, interdisciplinary collaborations, and a hands-on approach are at the heart of all our work.
Our studio We base our projects on fieldwork and on-site analyses to design places for all things living.
Our studio We engage with local communities to make our projects meaningful and relevant for their everyday users.

A hub of creativity and science

SLA is an interdisciplinary collective of people working within the trinity of nature, people, and design. We consist of three offices, twelve disciplines, more than 15 nationalities, and 130 people. Together, we are landscape architects, biologists, anthropologists, city planners, lighting designers, architects, planting experts, urban designers, ecologists, PhDs, safety experts, and forest engineers.

In all our projects, we mix creativity and science and collaborate between professions and disciplines to provide holistic and innovative solutions to some of today’s biggest urban problems. We love to put our interdisciplinary design method in use together with ambitious clients, involved stakeholders, and engaged citizens.

Reach out to us

Our studio Our design process begins with a simple question: What would nature do?
Our studio We design our projects in continuous collaboration with colleagues, clients, and communities.
Our studio Our studios are workshops for science, exploration, and creative solutions.
Our studio We base our projects on a deep understanding of their biological baselines, their social foundations, and their physical contexts.

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.

The results are poetic and sensuous places that solve today’s biggest urban challenges, provide value for our clients, create genuine life quality for all, and put all things living – people, cities, animals, and plants – first.

Explore our design approach

Our design approach We touch, smell, feel, taste, listen, and sense. And then we design.
Our design approach We make conceptual collages to visualize a project's sensuous and emotional character.
Our design approach Our workshops are homes of model-making, collaborative sketching, and 1:1 prototyping.
Our design approach Our designs create the foundation for life. From small-scale urban interventions to large-scale land art projects.

A learning and sharing culture

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.

Through our research and development network, sLAB, we initiate and engage in numerous research projects: From internal white papers and cross-office innovation projects to external collaborations with universities, NGOs, businesses, and intergovernmental agencies.

We apply the latest knowledge in all our projects to create state-of-the-art design solutions. And we share our learnings with our clients, collaborators, and the society at large.

Explore our research and development

Our studio We participate in lectures, keynotes, talks, and workshops worldwide to share, learn and push our thinking.
Our studio Each year we gather across our three offices to meet, learn, laugh, reflect, and strategize on the year ahead.
Our studio We see it as our obligation to let our voice and opinions be heard in Op-Eds, media appearances, and public debates.
Our studio We keep a close affiliation with universities and architecture schools to ensure a tight bond between our research and our practice.

Our history

For 30 years, SLA has designed places, nature, and cities that aim to put all things living – people, plants, and planet – first. Founded in 1994 as Stig L. Andersson Landscape Architects, SLA has evolved into an interdisciplinary nature-based design studio with a global presence and offices in Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Oslo.

Today, we are recognized as one of the world’s leading nature-based design studios whose work addresses the major global challenges of urbanization, climate crisis, and biodiversity extinction while creating livable, meaningful, and sustainable places for life.

Our studio SLA's three senior partners. Mette Skjold, Rasmus Astrup, and Stig L. Andersson

The Company

SLA is owned by a partner group consisting of 3 senior partners: founding partner Stig L. Andersson; architect and CEO Mette Skjold; and landscape architect and design principal Rasmus Astrup.

And 10 partners: Design director Louise Fiil Hansen, COO Klavs Holm Madsen, studio manager, SLA Aarhus Karsten Thorlund, R&D director Alexandra Vindfeld Hansen, studio manager, SLA Copenhagen Rasmus Grandelag, head of Chinese market Fred Yuhe Zhang, lead design architect Sune Rieper, CFO Bo Danielsen, project director Salka Kudsk, and lead design architect Nicoline Heather Madsen.

Learn more about us

Our studio We explore and experiment to push the boundaries of nature-based design solutions.
Our studio Our material library is a constant source of sensuous and tactile inspiration - for us and our clients.
Our studio We use the latest BIM and digitalization tools which enable a faster and more accurate project delivery to the benefit of clients, collaborators, and ourselves.
Our studio We love to explore what surprising results a creative citizens' engagement process will provide.

Clients & collaborators

Over the years, we have had the good fortune to work with a wide range of clients and collaborators. From global market-leading companies to innovative one-person businesses, we love clients and collaborators who are ambitious, courageous, and visionary.

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.

Explore our clients and collaborators

Our studio We work with elected officials and mayors. Here Pénélope Komitès, Deputy Mayor of Paris for green spaces and biodiversity.
Our studio We believe in the power of civil society and in unleashing our communities' ability to create meaningful change.
Our studio We work with the world's leading building architects to create projects that balance the built and the grown.
Our studio The best places are not made by us alone. But together with clients, communities, stakeholders, and other consultants.

We have a global presence

Our work stretches from dense mega-cities to rural countrysides. Based in Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Oslo, we bring our distinctly Nordic nature-based and human-driven approach with us out into the world. And we bring our global experience and best-practice design expertise with us back home.

We have ongoing projects in Scandinavia, Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. We are always curious about new places, cities, and societies.

Monroe Blocks Detroit We revitalize 'Motor City' into a bustling downtown destination for public life, social connections, and commercial opportunities.
Al Fay Park Abu Dhabi We continuously research and explore our projects' regional flora and fauna to create resilient designs with a strong sense of place.

Honors & awards

Throughout our 30-year history, we have been the happy and grateful recipients of several international and national awards and honors – underscoring our work’s high quality and meaningfulness to its users.

See the list of awards

Our studio Celebrating the joint effort of being named one of the fastest-growing companies in Norway.
Our studio Proud recipients of the Arne of the Year Award - the most prestigious architecture prize awarded by The Danish Association of Architects.

Fundamentals

Come explore the fundamentals of our office together with us

fund. 25

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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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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fund. 20

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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fund. 26

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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fund. 12

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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fund. 27

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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fund. 19

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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