Governance

Foundation stewardship

The Landscape Archive Foundation is a landscape architecture archive and plant library, with visualisation learning, teaching, and Teaching Studio. TLA-VIS stays free under CC BY 4.0 without membership. Field Notes are published on this site. Planting factory, Studio+, and Plant Store are commercial Archive products.

Because the Foundation is not yet incorporated, one potential is that upon incorporation it helps steward a digital twin commons for landscape architecture: open grammar, twin-ready interchange, and Creative Commons inheritance as shared public infrastructure. Until then, the open specification remains published here under interim stewardship by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, with commercial operations through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.

Intended public purpose (draft)

The sections below describe draft public purpose for consultation while incorporation is prepared.

The Landscape Archive Foundation is a landscape architecture archive and plant library, with visualisation learning, teaching, and Teaching Studio. TLA-VIS stays free under CC BY 4.0 without membership. Field Notes are published on this site. Planting factory, Studio+, and Plant Store are commercial Archive products.

The Landscape Archive Foundation stewards the open plant-model, BIM, and landscape digital-twin standard. Long-term operation of that standard at global scale requires physical infrastructure the Foundation owns or directs: a secured local processor network, and connectivity that holds quality of service. Rented cloud alone does not meet that requirement. No such network is claimed to be in place.

In the interim the Foundation is stewarded and powered by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd; correspondence and commercial operations are through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd. Open TLA-185 / TLA-169 grammar and the TLA-VIS visualisation grammar remain published here.

Founding warrant

The Landscape Archive grew from landscape architectural practice and research: a question of how ecological knowledge, design intent, and project claims remain legible in lasting records. Authorship, botanical evidence, and living-systems claims are treated with the same documentary care as the drawing.

Intellectual property is held by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd and commercially licensed by The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd. It is not the property of any professional institute, association, or working group.

The public work is the archive and plant library, together with teaching how a plant reads. Claims, methods, and evidence are intended to remain readable across decades of growth, maintenance, and institutional memory.

Mission

The Landscape Archive Foundation is a landscape architecture archive and plant library, with visualisation learning, teaching, and Teaching Studio.

TLA-VIS stays free under CC BY 4.0 without membership. Field Notes are published on this site. Planting factory, Studio+, and Plant Store are commercial Archive products.

It does not register, license, or accredit landscape architects. It is not a social-care remit, and not a membership institute.

• Archive and plant library — field grammar and citation on this site; filled Library on the Archive site
• Visualisation learning — TLA-VIS, 330 terms across 8 modules, CC BY 4.0, no membership
• Teaching and Teaching Studio
• TLA-185 / TLA-169 field grammar remains published here for citation; populated inventories stay licensed separately

Mission boundaries

This site does not offer shares, equity, options, or other investment products in The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd, The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, or the Foundation.

Open TLA-185 / TLA-169 grammar remains published here under interim stewardship. Commercial seats and Archive Seal renewals on the Australian hub fund product labour separately.

Foundation incorporation, any future endowment, and related capital structures remain matters for counsel and entity formation.

Intended beneficiaries

Intended users of this infrastructure are landscape architecture communities that need a shared, vendor-neutral reference: practices, educators, agencies, and allied teams. No beneficiary services or enrolment programmes are offered today.

• Practices, educators, and students who need a citable dictionary and inspectable project records
• Researchers and open-data communities supplying taxonomic and environmental evidence behind botanical fields
• Indigenous knowledge holders whose protocol governs restricted cultural material and whose authority must remain clear in disclosure
• Public agencies and practices that cite open planting metadata in procurement, handover, and digital twin programmes
• Institutions that bind the same field IDs through jurisdiction packs rather than forking a national schema

Activities

Live work includes the archive and plant-library pages, visualisation grammar, teaching material, and open-specification publishing. Volunteer coordination is in preparation.

Future activities require independent entity formation and Council approval. Grants, paid services, and overseas branch operations are not active.

• Live: archive and plant-library pages, visualisation grammar, teaching material, open-specification publishing
• In preparation: volunteer onboarding, public briefings on dictionary, packs, and evidence tools
• Potential at incorporation: The Landscape Archive Foundation helping steward a digital twin commons for landscape architecture
• Institutional asks (separate instruments): Ecological & Built-Environment Data Authority (EBDA); International Land-Data Exchange (ELDX)
• Landscape-native software initiative: in-studio coding knowledge and native tools for landscape architecture
• Later / separate: grants and scholarships after entity formation; Archive Certified training via Archive commercial channels

Funding

The Landscape Archive Foundation is not yet incorporated. Voluntary support sustains specification maintenance, catalogue integrity, documentation, hosting, and governance preparation.

Referencing TLA-185 remains free under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, and implementing TLA-VIS remains free under CC BY 4.0 with attribution. Contributions received on an interim basis are processed by The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd and are not tax-deductible today.

• Today: Foundation enquiry desk (see Support the standard)
• Future: donations, grants, and sponsorships when entity structure allows
• Commercial implementation of TLA-185 / TLA-169 remains licensed through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd; TLA-VIS does not require that licence

Truth-telling

Landscape projects carry claims about species, climate, sustainability, cultural context, and visual provenance — and about who specified the work and who bears documented risk. Truth-telling means those claims can be stated, checked, and questioned in a shared vocabulary.

The open vocabulary (taxon IDs, banded site context, evidence URIs, sensitivity classes, synthetic lineage) is published here under interim stewardship and is part of the Foundation’s digital twin potential at incorporation. Substantive verification remains with project teams and governing institutions.

• Authorship — who specified the work and who bears documented risk remains visible in the record
• Botanical — names, taxon IDs, growth form in exchange bundles
• Climate and sustainability — auditable fields with evidence and method notes
• Cultural — protocol-aware metadata with sensitivity-class routing
• Provenance — attribution and lineage for synthetic or derivative assets
• Institutional — Foundation Approved (open conformance) vs Archive Certified (vendor credential)

Entity and stewardship layers

Commercial assets remain with the Vault and Archive. The Landscape Archive Foundation is a landscape architecture archive and plant library, with visualisation learning, teaching, and Teaching Studio. Upon incorporation it may also help steward a digital twin commons for open landscape metadata. EBDA and ELDX remain two further, separate institutional instruments.

The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd

Private IP holding company. Proprietary IP: TLA Brain, 3D assets, databases, pipelines. Stewards and powers the Foundation until incorporation.

The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd

Commercial operator; the Vault→Archive intra-group licence is in force. Products, subscriptions, sales, support. Live regional hub: landscapearchive.com.au (Australian data portal). Additional hubs planned — not live. Made in Australia; international customers welcome on published Terms. Independent of professional institutes and peak bodies unless stated in writing.

The Landscape Archive Foundation

Intended independent foundation (incorporation in preparation). The Landscape Archive Foundation is a landscape architecture archive and plant library, with visualisation learning, teaching, and Teaching Studio. Publishes open TLA-185 / TLA-169 under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, and TLA-VIS under CC BY 4.0.

EBDA / ELDX

Two separate institutional asks: public-interest data authority gravity, and cross-border land/landscape exchange.

Governance scope

Foundation governance covers the Foundation’s professional mission and public consultation on the open specification while incorporation is prepared. Member organisations retain authority over their own operations and IP.

In scope: admitted members electing Council representatives and approving schema proposals while interim stewardship continues. Outside scope: Foundation brand forks, Archive pricing, or Vault licensing terms.

TLA-185 extension

Council — RFC, working group, simple majority

TLA-169 minor release (1.x)

Council — RFC, working group, simple majority

TLA-169 / TLA-185 major revision

Council — RFC, two-thirds super-majority

Cultural context and badge criteria

Council with First Nations advisory review

Foundation budget, brand, domain

Council — simple majority; not-for-profit

GitHub releases

Foundation officers — public PRs; merges via officers

Member practice

Each member organisation

Member proprietary IP

Each member — contribution retains member project IP

Archive products and pricing

The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd — no Foundation voting seat

Vault IP

The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd — Vault-held

Commercial implementation licence

The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd

Client project exchange records

Project author — restricted cultural material via sensitivity classes

Foundation and Archive

Foundation Approved is intended as vendor-neutral open-specification conformance when criteria are published — not a live self-serve product today. Landscape Archive Certified is a paid practitioner credential — distinct from Foundation Approved.

• “Foundation Approved” means open conformance when criteria are published; “Archive Certified” is a practitioner credential
• Archive Seal is a commercial attestation and is distinct from Foundation Approved
• Certification, commerce, and licensed datasets remain with the Archive

Vault — Brain, assets, datasets, pipelines

Proprietary IP — Vault-held

Foundation — TLA-185 / TLA-169, schemas, draft reference

Public specification — CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Foundation — TLA-VIS vocabulary and specification

Published grammar — CC BY 4.0; name and conformance mark retained

Vault — plant engine, TLA-VIS reference implementation

Engine is Vault-held; reference implementation is Apache-2.0

Foundation — Foundation Approved

Open conformance concept — criteria not yet a public product

Foundation — cultural-context policy

Policy and checklists only

Archive — Library, Revit, Studio+™, shop

Commercial products

Archive — Archive Seal

Paid renewable commercial attestation (distinct from Foundation Approved)

Archive — practitioner certification

Paid vendor credential

Archive — species library, licensed data

Licensed separately from the open specification

Layer 1 · Foundation Approved

Intended open conformance — criteria not yet a public product

Layer 2 · Archive Certified

Archive training (paid)

Layer 3 · Institutional attestation (future)

Foundation policy; Archive may be one issuer

Draft consultation — request a review pack

The published schema pack and field registry are open for critique as draft reference. Interactive validators and the Evidence Checker upload interface remain unavailable while stewardship and incorporation arrangements are clarified; the TLA-185 / TLA-169 specification remains under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 and TLA-VIS under CC BY 4.0. Draft orbit pages including TLA-EVID remain available for citation. Request a review pack when you want structured follow-up on handover vocabulary.

Founding-alliance language elsewhere on this site describes a proposed consultation model. The Foundation is preparing for incorporation; requesting a review pack does not create an alliance seat.

Start with the field registry, the draft dictionary, and the published Field Notes.

• Critique schema clarity, examples, and conformance notes
• Surface mapping gaps as public RFC feedback where possible
• Keep proprietary project IP and client data out of unsolicited attachments

Founding alliance

Draft model: an international coalition of independent organisations that could steward the open specification through charter consultation. No alliance has been formed yet.

The Archive affiliate partner programme is a commercial referral arrangement and is separate from Foundation founding membership.

If a founding alliance proceeds after incorporation, classes may include practices, universities, public bodies, Indigenous protocol authorities, supply-chain partners, and implementation partners (advisory; no voting majority). Each organisation remains legally independent.

Interested organisations may read the draft charter and register interest. Alliance seating begins only after incorporation — requesting a review pack or charter comments does not create a seat.

• Practice — landscape and allied firms
• Academic — universities and research groups
• Public-body — agencies referencing the open standard
• Indigenous protocol — custodial authorities with advisory sign-off on cultural-context rules
• Supply-chain — nurseries and material suppliers
• Implementation — BIM/GIS/validation vendors (advisory; no default vote)

Affiliate partner programme

Commercial Archive programme

Founding alliance

Proposed; in formation

Implementation partners

Advisory by default; no voting majority

One international dictionary

TLA-185 is one international dictionary. Australia is where it was first exercised, and where the commercial Hub is live. That is origin and fill.

Other institutions do not get different field IDs. A UK, Canadian, or Singapore studio still uses the same published keys: species key, taxon ID, quantity, climate claim slots, LOD, cultural sensitivity. Inventing a parallel UK dictionary would be the thing the standard exists to stop.

What changes by place is the binding, not the slot. Jurisdiction packs and climate disclosure crosswalks point the same field IDs at local country codes, climate products, and reporting regimes.

A London studio does not get a new botanical name field. It fills the same botanical slots from UK flora and protocol, points climate screening at Met Office / UKCP18 instead of SILO / CCIA, and cites IFRS S2 instead of AASB S2. Same keys; local evidence. Teaching examples that use Australian taxa illustrate fill. The remap rule (empty stays empty; slogans are not claims) is not Australian.

TLA-169 is the earlier field count (169); TLA-185 extends it by 16 fields to 185. That is versioning, not geography.

The Foundation’s path is independent stewardship of the grammar that other bodies can cite. It is not a replacement for national professional institutes. It holds the dictionary, the RFC, jurisdiction packs, and the line that local inspect ≠ Archive Seal ≠ Foundation Approved ≠ government approval. It does not hold nursery lists, municipal standing, cultural protocol, or professional sign off. Those stay with the local profession.

A new country or institute joining does not fork fields. It either binds existing slots in a jurisdiction pack or crosswalk, or proposes a missing term into the one dictionary. That is how the grammar stays singular instead of becoming eight private vocabularies.

• Do not invent parallel field names for a second country
• Bind local flora, climate products, and procurement rules to published keys
• Propose a missing term into the one dictionary rather than forking a national schema
• Local inspect, Archive Seal, Foundation Approved, and government approval remain distinct

Layer 1 · Dictionary

One public grammar (TLA-185 / TLA-169). Status: live

Layer 2 · Jurisdiction pack

Local codes, dataset pointers, disclosure crosswalks. AU is the reference pack; others are starters

Layer 3 · Formal standardisation

ISO, buildingSMART, OGC. Not started; needs an incorporated Foundation

Australia

Reference fill and live commercial Hub (landscapearchive.com.au)

Other packs

Starter bindings. Australia remains the live commercial Library fill

International adoption

Credibility builds in layers: (1) published open specification with RFC and validator; (2) de facto adoption in tools, procurement, and teaching; (3) formal standardisation (ISO, buildingSMART, OGC) only after independent governance and real-world use.

TLA-185 stays one dictionary. See One international dictionary. ISO status and universal Australian dataset bindings remain future work. Other jurisdictions bind the same field IDs to local climate and geospatial products through published jurisdiction packs and crosswalks that keep the dictionary singular.

Jurisdiction packs (AU reference; UK, CA, US, NZ, SG, HK, and ZA starters) supply country and subnational enums for project.jurisdiction. They are Layer-2 adoption artifacts. The Archive commercial hub remains landscapearchive.com.au until additional hubs are published.

Formal standardisation remains forward work subject to Council approval, national-body sponsorship, and budget.

• Incorporate Foundation; recruit founding alliance members outside Australia
• Maintain public GitHub pack and 14-day RFC periods
• Pilot adoptions and standards-liaison introductions
• Publish jurisdiction packs (AU reference; UK, CA, US, NZ, SG, HK, ZA starters) and climate crosswalks (AASB S2, UK, EU, US, CA, NZ available)

Layer 1 · Open specification

Dictionary, RFC, schema portal, semver — live

Layer 2 · De facto adoption

Export profiles, jurisdiction packs, crosswalks, pilots — early

Layer 3 · Formal standardisation

Not started; requires incorporated Foundation

Jurisdiction packs

AU reference · UK/US starter — published

Public language

Prefer “open landscape metadata standard”; reserve TLA codes for registry/schema

Digital twin potential

One potential path for The Landscape Archive Foundation — still unincorporated — is to help steward a digital twin commons for landscape architecture: open grammar, twin-ready interchange, and long-horizon Creative Commons inheritance. Shared digital infrastructure and technical commons could live in one public entity if incorporation and conversation with the profession allow.

Today the open TLA-185 specification remains published on this site under interim stewardship while incorporation is prepared. The Foundation’s centre is shared digital infrastructure for landscape architecture communities: dictionary, packs, tools, and evidence. A twin-ready grammar would be a technical charge in that service: definitions that can be checked, not assumed. Commercial Archive products and Vault proprietary IP stay outside the Foundation layer. EBDA and ELDX remain two further, separate institutional instruments.

Draft potential under consultation. The Foundation is not yet an independent incorporated entity.

• Explore incorporation so the Foundation can help steward landscape architecture’s digital twin commons in public
• Publish and renew the open field dictionary as twin-ready public infrastructure
• Herald Creative Commons inheritance for landscape project records across generations
• Invite dialogue with educators, practices, and institutions on shared grammar and lasting project accountability
• Keep EBDA and ELDX as two separate institutional instruments beside that commons

One Foundation path

Because the Foundation is not yet incorporated, one possible path is that it helps hold open grammar, twin-ready interchange, and Creative Commons inheritance as public infrastructure — if incorporation and institutional conversation allow.

Open grammar

Publish and renew the public TLA-185 / TLA-169 field dictionary, schemas, and conformance rules as citable infrastructure for landscape digital twins and project records.

Creative Commons inheritance

Keep the open licence alive across generations so practitioners seventy years from now can still cite, teach, and check honest records.

Shared with the profession

This potential is metadata and twin-commons infrastructure for practitioners, educators, and institutions — offered for citation and conversation, with membership and accreditation remaining where they already belong.

Beside EBDA and ELDX

EBDA supplies public-interest authority gravity; ELDX supplies cross-border exchange. Both remain separate instruments that could orbit a twin commons.

Further holdings

The record the Archive keeps today is the plant: identity, measured traits, sources, and a model. A further holding would use that same shape for a material, a medium, or a fitting. Nothing in this section is in the Library.

Specification systems and manufacturer catalogues already describe much of this work. They specify a task, or a product as it is sold now.

Potential products of the commercial Archive. Not published. Not a Foundation standard.

• 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.

Hardscape materials

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.

Site furniture and fittings

The same manufacturer 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.

Drawings and practice papers

These already 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

Methods already exist: 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.

Landscape-native software initiative

As part of the Foundation’s digital twin potential, this initiative centres innovative in-studio coding knowledge and the advancement of landscape architectural native software — tools and methods built for the future of the discipline.

The aim is durable capability: practices that can read and write open TLA-185 records, extend workflows with code where it serves design, and ship landscape-native software that keeps living systems, evidence, and authorship legible. Commercial Archive connectors and Studio+™ delivery remain separate products. This initiative is Foundation stewardship of public grammar and professional digital literacy — an invitation to build for landscape architecture itself.

Draft initiative under consultation.

Vendor products remain free to implement the open grammar. This page names a discipline-led software path, not a partnership claim with any named platform.

• Cite the open field dictionary in one studio, teaching, or RFQ deliverable
• Share mapping gaps and studio coding experiments against draft registry keys for public consultation
• If you build landscape-native tools or teach digital methods, register interest for structured conversation after incorporation milestones allow

In-studio coding knowledge

Advance practical coding literacy inside landscape practices — scripts, interchange, and tooling that extend design method rather than sit outside it.

Landscape-native software

Encourage software shaped for landscape architectural workflows: planting, softscape maturity, site context, evidence, and provenance as first-class concerns.

Open grammar in tools

Publish TLA-185 so native tools and studio pipelines can cite the same field IDs without each office inventing a private vocabulary.

Studios and educators

Give universities and practices a clear path to teach and test landscape-native digital methods beside design judgement.

Institutional asks

Beside the potential that The Landscape Archive Foundation helps steward a digital twin commons upon incorporation, the Foundation names two further institutional instruments. EBDA and ELDX remain separate. Both are stewardship goals and public asks for consultation.

Public asks in formation under consultation. EBDA and ELDX remain two distinct instruments.

These asks sit with the Foundation’s public agenda. They are distinct from Archive Seal, commercial Archive products, Vault proprietary IP, and from the Foundation’s digital twin potential. Licence for the TLA-185 / TLA-169 specification remains CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; TLA-VIS is published under CC BY 4.0.

The Ecological & Built-Environment Data Authority (EBDA)

A proposed public-interest stewardship instrument for ecological and built-environment data conformance, disclosure shape, and standards gravity that orbits TLA-185. The Foundation asks for EBDA as institutional weight beside the open grammar.

The International Land-Data Exchange (ELDX)

A proposed cross-border interchange for land and landscape project records under the open metadata grammar. The Foundation asks for ELDX as exchange infrastructure — separate from EBDA.

Cultural pillars

Land, art, technology, and data describe the work. The Foundation is the archive and plant library those pillars sit in, and may, upon incorporation, help steward a digital twin commons for that metadata.

Product organisations ship commercial tools. The Foundation publishes the shared dictionary, packs, and evidence grammar those tools can cite — twin-ready public infrastructure beside EBDA and ELDX.

Land

Living systems, place, and practice.

Art

How landscape is seen and represented.

Technology

Tools that make evidence usable.

Data

Traceable records and methods for the commons.

Foundation Standards

Five interrelated standards describe domains where landscape project metadata must meet rising professional and public expectation. Together they treat truth in landscape documentation as an infrastructural problem: shared definitions, open governance, and a clear public/commercial boundary.

1 · Botanical truth and reference standard

Planting schedules often imply botanical knowledge without encoding it. TLA-185 (185 elements; extending TLA-169 at 169) defines taxonomy, traits, botanical asset rows, and BIM delivery metadata as first-class interchange elements.

When Foundation Approved criteria are published, a conforming bundle should carry at least one botanical asset row reconstructable without proprietary joins: taxon identifier, scientific name, native status, and growth form. That bar is not a live self-serve product today. Populated species matrices remain licensed Archive/Vault datasets.

2 · Climate and environmental disclosure

TLA-185 extends environment and sustainability modules with site-context bands, climate screening, risk metadata, and structured disclosure fields with method notes.

The Foundation specifies metadata shape. Entity-level inventories, audited filings, and regulatory assessments remain with project teams and institutions.

3 · Open research infrastructure

Universities and practitioners need a stable, citable reference independent of vendor access. The Foundation publishes the canonical specification, schema artefacts, and examples for TLA-185 / TLA-169. Public validator and Evidence Checker inspect files locally; they do not issue Archive Seal or Foundation Approved.

TLA Brain, high-fidelity assets, Studio+™, and populated libraries remain licensed commercial products. The Foundation layer holds the grammar of landscape project metadata.

4 · Public-sector and digital twin interface

Agencies may cite the open specification in procurement and digital twin discussions without lock-in to a single vendor data model. Foundation Approved is intended as a machine-checkable interchange baseline when criteria and validators are published — it is not a live self-serve product today.

Reference the schema under the published licence; implement through licensed partners as needed; treat Foundation Approved assessment as forward work until criteria ship.

5 · Ethics of synthetic nature and attribution

Synthetic imagery enters landscape visualisation faster than shared provenance rules. The specification separates open schema from commercial assets and defines sensitivity classes for restricted cultural detail.

Planned policy will require creator attribution, derivation lineage, and explicit marking of synthetic or composite assets in exchange bundles.

Licence

Two published instruments, two licences. The TLA-185 / TLA-169 records specification (185 documented elements) and schema documentation are published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

TLA-VIS, the plant visualisation grammar (330 terms across 8 modules, version 1.0.0), is published under CC BY 4.0: attribution required; commercial implementation, translation, and derivative profiles permitted. The reference implementation is Apache-2.0.

Library, Hub, Studio+™, Data API, 3D assets, the plant engine, and populated datasets are not under Creative Commons — they are licensed separately by The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd. Publishing the visualisation grammar does not licence any of them.

• TLA-185 · BY — canonical specification must be credited
• TLA-185 · NC — commercial use requires a separate Archive licence
• TLA-185 · ND — modified redistributions are not permitted; updates via Foundation semver only
• TLA-VIS · BY — attribution required; this instrument carries no NC or ND condition
• TLA-VIS · mark — the name and conformance mark stay with the steward as a trademark, separately from the copyright licence. Anyone may implement; only conformant implementations may claim the mark

Creative Commons inheritance

The Foundation heralds Creative Commons as the public licence for the open landscape metadata grammar — so landscape architecture seventy years from now can still cite, teach, and check project records without renting a private vocabulary. That commons is part of the Foundation’s digital twin potential at incorporation.

Inheritance here means institutional succession and durable public infrastructure. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 remains the ongoing public licence for TLA-185; the seventy-year horizon names a duty of care to future practice. Formal wills, assignments, and succession instruments remain matters for counsel and entity formation. This page states the public intention while incorporation is prepared.

TLA-VIS is published under CC BY 4.0, so most of that frame does not apply to it. There is no non-commercial or no-derivatives condition on TLA-VIS that could fall away later, and a CC BY 4.0 grant is irrevocable: an implementer’s right to use the published grammar does not depend on the Foundation incorporating, surviving, or continuing to steward it. On that instrument the commons is already secured by the licence rather than by a succession plan. What succession still governs for TLA-VIS is the name and the conformance mark, which are retained as a trademark and are not part of the copyright grant — and the unfinished botanical work, since per-term definitions are still outstanding and a term list without definitions will not serve a seventy-year reader on its own.

Draft stewardship intention for consultation while incorporation is prepared.

Citing TLA-185 under Creative Commons is free for non-commercial reference; commercial implementation of that records grammar remains separately licensed. TLA-VIS may be implemented commercially under CC BY 4.0 with attribution. Neither licence covers Archive datasets, assets, or the plant engine.

• Publish and keep the open field dictionary citable under Creative Commons while commercial layers stay clearly separated
• Keep TLA-VIS implementable under CC BY 4.0 and finish the per-term botanical definitions, so the published grammar remains usable rather than only citable
• Treat long-horizon readability of landscape project records as a founding duty of twin-ready stewardship
• Advance incorporation and copyright assignment so the commons can outlast interim private stewardship
• Invite institutions and educators to cite the grammar now, so future practice inherits a living public record rather than a closed archive

Herald the commons

Keep the public TLA-185 field dictionary, schemas, and conformance rules under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 so citation can outlast any one company's product life.

Seventy-year horizon

Design for practitioners, educators, and maintainers around 2096 and beyond — a professional inheritance horizon for landscape architecture.

Institutional succession

Plan entity formation, copyright assignment to an independent Foundation, and governance so stewardship can pass while the open grammar remains public.

Two instruments, two licences

TLA-185 is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; TLA-VIS is CC BY 4.0. The inheritance frame on this page was written for the records specification and does not transfer to TLA-VIS unchanged.

Licence boundary

Creative Commons covers the public specification and the visualisation grammar. Library, Hub, Studio+™, Data API, 3D assets, the plant engine, and populated datasets remain separately licensed commercial products.

Interim stewardship

The Foundation name reflects intended stewardship once an independent entity exists. In the interim it is stewarded and powered by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, which holds copyright in the public specification pending assignment. Commercial operations: The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.

TLA-185 and related Archive work are authored by The Landscape Archive. They are not the property of any professional institute, association, or working group. Use beyond Creative Commons citation of the open grammar is by licence or purchase.

These pages describe draft governance and licence terms for discussion only.

• TLA-185 / TLA-169 specification under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
• TLA-VIS vocabulary and specification under CC BY 4.0; name and conformance mark retained
• Stewarded and powered by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, which holds interim copyright
• Species values, automation, the plant engine, and commercial assets excluded from the open layer

How to cite

Recommended: The Landscape Archive Foundation. TLA-185 Landscape Metadata Standard, version 1.0.0. https://landscapearchive.org/governance (accessed [date]). Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

For the visualisation grammar: The Landscape Archive Foundation. TLA-VIS Plant Visualisation Grammar, version 1.0.0. https://landscapearchive.org/standards/tla-vis (accessed [date]). Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

For the field registry or a release tag, add that identifier. Cite commercial Archive products separately at landscapearchive.com.au/citations.

Commercial use

Non-commercial reference to TLA-185 / TLA-169 (teaching, research, open government documentation) may be permitted under NC terms. Commercial implementation of those instruments licences through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.

TLA-VIS needs no Archive licence to implement: CC BY 4.0 permits commercial use with attribution. A licence is still required for the plant engine, Studio+, compiled plant kits, Library fill, curated species records, meshes, and stills.