Dermot Foley

Dermot Foley Landscape Architects (DFLA)

Dermot Foley is director of Dermot Foley Landscape Architects, based in Dublin and London. He is a horticulturalist and landscape architect, having trained at the National Botanic Gardens before studying landscape architecture. He was an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin until 2024 and lectured internationally.

DFLA was established by Dermot Foley in 2001 and today is one of Ireland’s most innovative and successful landscape architecture practices. After two decades of ‘observing and intervening’, recent forays into the circular economy have led the practice toward an artistic expression of the environmental sciences; exploring themes of chronology, abandonment, embodied cognition, craft, imperfection, and ecology in experimental and built work in Ireland and further afield. Their mission is to push the boundaries of landscape architecture by addressing the complex and inter-related array of client, user, economic and environmental requirements on any given site and deliver external environments which improve the quality of life for those who experience them. The practice employs horticulturalists, landscape architects and architects to ensure that their approach to the design and construction process is well informed and that they can apply their principles to the widest possible range of project types. Recent built work of note includes new public realm for Kingston University, London, a new 11-hectare public park in west Dublin and a network of five public spaces in the centre of Dublin, one of which is Bridgefoot Street Park. DFLA has received awards internationally for built work, research, conservation, and conceptual work, including 2023 and 2024 LILA Awards. Their most recent monograph titled DFLA: Chronologies of practice at Dermot Foley Landscape Architects is published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.