Laura Roldão Costa (São Sebastião da Pedreira, Lisbon, Portugal, 13 September 1963) is a landscape architect, researcher and educator. She graduated in Landscape Architecture from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia at the Technical University of Lisbon in 1988 and received her PhD in Landscape Architecture from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto in 2015.
In 2005, she founded her own practice in Porto, Laura Roldão Costa – Arquitectura Paisagista, where she develops projects in landscape architecture, urbanism and territorial planning, as well as project coordination and construction supervision. Her practice operates at different scales, with particular attention to biophysical conditions and ecosystem balance as determining factors in the design process, together with the social, cultural and economic factors that shape territories transformed by human activity.
Her work considers vegetation as one of the principal materials in the construction of landscape, addressing its evolution over time, adaptability, textures, volumes and chromatic variations. Plant selection prioritises native species, while also incorporating introduced species that form part of Portugal’s cultural and botanical landscape heritage. For Roldão Costa, landscape design does not end with the completion of construction, but continues through the development and maturation of the project, responding to ecological transformations and to the ways in which spaces are appropriated by their users.
Alongside her professional practice, she is active in teaching and research at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), with a focus on landscape architecture, urban green spaces and the use of plant material. Her work has received several distinctions, including the Portuguese National Landscape Architecture Awards in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and the International Land Award – Nature and Artifice in 2022 for the Leça River Green Corridor.
