Welcome to SACLAP
The South African Council for the Landscape Architectural Profession (SACLAP) was established in 2001 as a statutory Council in terms of Section 2 of the South African Council for the Landscape Architectural Profession Act – Act 45 of 2000. The Council evolved out of the Board of Control for Landscape Architects (BOCLASA), which functioned under the Council of Architects in terms of The Architectural Act, Act 73 of 1970. The Council is composed of ten elected Council Members serving a four year term, consisting of six registered professionals, two registered professionals in the service of the State, and two members of the public, who fulfill the mandates as prescribed in the Act.
Across borders and beyond walls, from city centers to the last wilderness, humanity’s common ground is the landscape itself. Food, water, oxygen – everything that sustains us comes from and returns to the landscape. What we do to our landscapes we ultimately do to ourselves. The profession charged with designing this common ground is landscape architecture.
The urgent challenge before us is to redesign our communities in the context of their bioregional landscapes enabling them to adapt to climate change and mitigate its root causes. As designers versed in both environmental and cultural systems, landscape architects are uniquely positioned to bring related professions together into new alliances to address complex social and ecological problems. Landscape architects bring different and often competing interests together so as to give artistic physical form and integrated function to the ideals of equity, sustainability, resiliency and democracy.
The New Landscape Declaration June 2016
Vision
To establish, sustain, advance and govern the Landscape Professions in the interest of the public and to the benefit of the environment.
Mission
SACLAP achieves the vision by:
Delivering on its mandates in the service of the public,
Ensuring a stable Council,
Transforming and growing the landscape professions through the recognition of competencies, and
Establishing a sphere of influence within the Built Environment Professions (BEP’s).
Values
SACLAP’s values are underpinned by:
Integrity: upholding the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct.
Transparency: consultation, accessible information and increasing openness.
Equality: transform the landscape professions.