Anna Plischke (formerly Lang, née Schwitzer; 1895–1983) was a

landscape design Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garde ...

er trained in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, who practised in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. She introduced modernist ideas of design to the built environment and architectural practice.

Biography

Plischke's father was Jewish merchant Hugo Schwitzer, and her mother was Hedwig Nossal. In Vienna, where she grew up, she gained an arts degree. She trained in

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

at the

Rothschilds The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...

' garden and then went on to work in landscape gardening. After her marriage to

Ernst Plischke Ernst Anton Plischke (1903 – 23 May 1992) was an Austrian-New Zealand modernist architect, town planner and furniture designer whose work is well known throughout Europe and New Zealand. Early years Plischke was born in the town of Klosterne ...

, the couple came to New Zealand as refugees in 1939 as she was under threat from the Gestapo due to her Jewish heritage. In New Zealand, they were classified as German under the Aliens Emergency regulations and only avoided being interred on

Matiu Somes Island Matiu / Somes Island is the largest of three islands in the northern half of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. It is the former site of military and quarantine internments, as well as animal quarantine until 1995. Since 1995 it has been designat ...

in Wellington Harbour because of her husband's status in his government job with the Housing Department. In New Zealand, her practice was often related to her architect husband's; he would design the houses and she the landscapes, although he also used her input in specifying the interior finishes including "wood veneers, fittings and fabrics". The 1947 publication ''Design and Living'' was about the Frankel House in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

with Ernst's architecture and Anna's landscaping, which was an extension of the living space with a 'living terrace' off the living room. Another design was a renovation of a neo-Georgian house in Wellington where windows and a big sliding door opened out to courtyards. She designed approximately 15 gardens in New Zealand. In 1951, Plischke wrote an essay for national New Zealand journal ''

Design Review A design review is a milestone within a product development process whereby a design is evaluated against its requirements in order to verify the outcomes of previous activities and identify issues before committing to—and, if need be, to re-pr ...

'' called "A Garden for Pleasure", introducing concepts of curved relaxed gardens that differed from formal British garden design of the time.

Personal life

Plischke's first marriage was to businessman Robert Lang. They had a child together, and divorced in 1935. Her second husband was Ernst Plischke. She died in Vienna in 1983.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plischke, Anna 1895 births 1983 deaths New Zealand landscape architects 20th-century New Zealand architects New Zealand women architects Austrian emigrants to New Zealand