Open metadata standard · v1.0.0 draft

Open landscape data standard

An open, free metadata standard for Australian landscape projects — plants, site context, sustainability, and Connection to Country — that any BIM, CAD, or GIS tool can read.

Founding members wanted

We're inviting practices, universities, councils, and Traditional Owner organisations to shape v1 of the standard. Joining doesn't affect your independence, and there's no cost to begin.

We'll only use your email to contact you about the federation standard — no marketing, no sharing.

How it works

  1. Independent nodes (practices, universities, councils) keep full control of operations.
  2. The open standard provides shared JSON fields any BIM, CAD, or GIS tool can read.
  3. Validators check exports; qualifying projects earn a Federation Approved badge.
  4. Commercial tools (e.g. The Landscape Archive) implement the standard and may sell BIM assets on top.

Schema modules

Selling plants & families

The open standard is open and free. Landscape Archive and other vendors can still sell Revit families, shop packs, and Library subscriptions — commerce sits in the implementation layer, not in the public vocabulary.

Separate domain

This portal is intended for schema.landscapefederation.org.au, independent of landscapearchive.com.au, so the community standard stays neutral while products evolve commercially.

How the standard is governed

The standard is governed by a binding agreement between independent participants. The draft charter encodes four mechanisms:

  1. Written charter — the constitution every member signs.
  2. Two-tier power split — explicit reserved powers; anything unlisted stays with members.
  3. Council & voting — representatives vote; super-majority for schema 2.0 and charter changes.
  4. Independent arbitrator — neutral, binding dispute resolution over the charter.

It starts as an unincorporated working group — no new company — stepping up to an incorporated association only later, and only if it needs to hold assets or take grants.

Downloads