Landscape Archive Foundation · open metadata standard · v1.0.0 draft

Open landscape data standard

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

Validate a bundle Schema manifest Example bundle Badge criteria CLI validator LA crosswalk

Founding supporters 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.

Read the founding invitation Express interest

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

How it works

  1. Independent organisations (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 locally (browser or CLI); qualifying projects earn a Foundation 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.

Independent stewardship

This portal is hosted separately from landscapearchive.com.au, so the community standard stays neutral while commercial products evolve. The Foundation holds the open schema; vendors compete on implementation quality.

Open source & licence

The v1 TLA-169 field dictionary and schema documentation are published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 — free for attribution, non-commercial reference, without modification. Commercial implementation requires a licence from The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.

Landscape Archive application code, connectors, TLA Brain automation, and canonical species datasets remain under separate commercial terms. The Foundation standard layer is explicitly carved out from commercial IP.

How the standard is governed

The Foundation is a not-for-profit steward of the open standard — not a software vendor. The draft charter encodes four mechanisms:

  1. Written charter — the constitution every supporter 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.

Founding charter (draft) Legal options (no company) Incorporation checklist Objects & rules Inaugural minutes Founding invitation

Downloads

v1 JSON field names retain a legacy federation prefix for compatibility; Foundation branding applies to governance and public documentation.