Further holdings
The Archive record today is the plant. The same shape could hold a material, a medium, or a fitting. None of that is published, and none of it is a Foundation standard.
The shape already in use
The record the Archive keeps today is the plant. It carries four things: identity, measured traits, sources, and a model.
A further holding would use that same shape for something that is not a plant: a material, a growing medium, or a fitting. The sections below follow that order. Nothing named here is in the Library.
What is already written down
Specification systems and manufacturer catalogues already describe much of this work. They specify a task, or a product as it is sold now.
- Australia. NATSPEC BUILDING Landscape and AUS-SPEC: paving, concrete pavement, granular surfaces, walling and edging, and decking.
- New Zealand. Masterspec Landscapes, a clause library that can cite branded products from miproducts.
- United Kingdom. NBS Source keeps structured product data, literature, and digital objects from manufacturers, including paving.
- Manufacturer files. CADdetails and ARCAT host CAD and Revit families for exterior improvements, including unit paving.
- Pictures and samples. Render libraries store surfaces. Sample services move physical swatches.
What a holding would keep
Hardscape is the clearest case. A holding would be the material record: identity, measured performance, provenance, a dated source, and a model, kept beside the plant. The Archive does not hold one today.
The same shape fits four further cases.
- Site furniture and fittings. Catalogues already list benches, edging, drinking fountains, and similar fittings. A record would keep the fitting after the SKU is withdrawn.
- Growing media. Specified blends, structural soils, and green-roof substrates are products. Broad soil maps already exist and stay cited: ISRIC SoilGrids globally, and national surveys such as ASRIS and USDA SSURGO.
- Drainage assemblies. CIRIA’s SuDS guidance and the Benefits of SuDS Tool (United Kingdom), and water-sensitive urban design as written into Australian specification, describe the work. The units, media, and tanks inside an assembly are closer to a product record.
- External lighting. Photometric files and fittings are manufacturer libraries. A record would keep the fitting, the file, and the date it was current.
What stays where it is
Three kinds of record already have a home. The Archive does not need to take them in.
- Drawings and practice papers have custodians, including the Landscape Institute archive at The MERL (United Kingdom), the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and university collections such as the Environmental Design Archives at Berkeley.
- Tree valuation has methods: i-Tree (United States Forest Service; used in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia) and CAVAT (United Kingdom). A plant record can cite the method. The Archive does not need to become the calculator.
- Nursery availability and price lists change by region and season. Keeping them as a durable record would state a fact that has already moved.
Status
These are potential products of the commercial Archive. They are not published. They are not a Foundation standard.
Next Steps
Open Foundation materials for one studio deliverable are on the adoption guide. Citing the grammar stays free under CC BY-NC-ND.
Commercial documentation rights and AU Library depth are on Professional Membership at landscapearchive.com.au — not a fee to unlock the TLA-185 PDF.