IFLA Newsletter February 2014

FROM THE PRESIDENT Desiree Martínez 2

51st IFLA World CongressThinking and Action Guadalupe Bunge 2

IFLA’s Financial Opportunities Damian Tang 4

From Projection to Action Diana Wiesner 7

Recovering Landscape and Place Výškovice-Wischkowitz Klara Salzmann 11

Winner of the IFLA Trophy Competition IFLA News Brief 13

[email protected] web sitewww.iflaonline.org cultural landscape committee www.iflaclc.org

IFLA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PresidentDesiree [email protected]

Secretary General Ilya MOCHALOV [email protected]

Vice-President European RegionNigel [email protected]

Vice-President Asia/Pacific RegionDato Ismail bin Ngah [email protected]

Vice-President Americas RegionCarlos [email protected]

Editor IFLA NewsShirah [email protected] Potential contributors please contact [email protected]

Deadline for articles (500-1000 words plus illustrations) last day of the preceding month

C O N T E N T S

International Federation of Landscape Architects Fédération Internationale des Architectes Paysagistes

IFLANO. 109 FEBRUARY 2014

THINKING IN ACTION

N E W S L E T T E R

51st IFLA World Congress

IFLA Newsletter Issue 109 FEBRUARY 2014

�

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear all,

We had a very friendly and successful meeting in Brussels where we worked diligently towards our next World Council in Ar-gentina. We are look-ing forward to seeing you all there!

Our new EXCO mem-bers Ana Luengo (IFLA-Europe) and Tunji Adeju-mo (IFLA-Africa) are two terrific people who are working with a lot of enthusiasm for their regions and the world! We are happy to report that we are all harmonizing very well together.

Now we see the next steps to be implemented in the Strategic Framework that we worked on all last year very clearly. It has been quite an achievement to set the framework, write the new constitution and by-laws, revise all com-mittee tasks and ToRs and to establish financial strategies. I want to thank everyone who has contributed to these important achievements: all colleagues and EXCO members, Diane, Nigel, Bruno, Mike and all others who have enriched the documents with ideas.

A crucial task for the next few months will be to hire a new executive director; someone that brings an administrative and business perspec-tive to our Federation and that will facilitate the execution of our tasks in a more efficient way.I personally see my term slowly coming to an end with both a smile and a tear.

With a big, big hug

Desiree Martínez

51st IFLA World CongressThinking and Action, Earth, Home and Landscape of Places

Guadalupe BungeCAAP President

The 51st IFLA Congress will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from June 5th to the 7th, 2014. The theme of the Congress is “Thinking and Ac-tion, Earth, Home and Landscape of Places”. We are very proud to be able to discuss what think-ing and action is or may be in our everyday lives and profession. We can prove that thinking and action are as old and bound to human beings as is our own landscape. It is worthwhile to spend some time, which is independent of virtual or im-mediate reality, to consider how to reinforce our connection with the environment. In spite of our rights and wrongs, it is the landscape that holds us and in some way influences our thoughts.In this era of global information, automation, circulation, networks and of non places, the question is how to shape our identity. The great problem today is filtering the information since we are flooded by it. We are constantly connected with each other through our cell phones and the Internet but what about being connected with ourselves?

Even amidst this global community, we have our own roots, our own culture and our own thinking.Our thinking needs to begin from our diversity, from each place on this earth, from each one of us. How does one construct a road? How do we build landscapes and create places?

WE NEED TO BE CONNECTED WITH OURSELVES

With the notion that Paradise is here, within us, that WE are PARADISE, the creation dwells in us. All we need is to discover it and bring it to the surface in our own personal way by creating and doing at the same time.


�


We can do this from our place, wherever that is; each person connected to oneself, to one’s land, to one’s beliefs and to one’s history.

We are all one but we each have our own identity.

OBJECTIVE OF THE CONGRESS To build, consolidate and rethink the identity of each landscape, each person and each town, from the perspective of their environment and their culture.

THEME DEVELOPMENT We would like to analyze and discuss the “back-stage” of the profession. From a place of think-ing: the presentation of a need/problem, the relationship with the client, planning, research, design, marketing and action: management, building, administrating and maintaining.

1. Landscapes In Emergency_The Landscape in “The Emergency” 2. Heritage Landscapes 3. Productive Landscapes 1. LANDSCAPES IN EMERGENCY_THE LAND-SCAPE IN “THE EMERGENCY” The aim now is to address the issue of prevention and how to use landscaped sites to house people in situations of emergency.

For example, the earthquake in Kyoto, the tsuna-mi in Japan, the earthquakes in New Zealand, the

tsunami and earthquakes in Chile, the volcanic eruption in Chile, etc. For all of these situations, analyses were submitted introducing the modifi-cations that landscape is undergoing due to dif-ferent climatic changes and tectonic movements on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The landscape in emergency has become a priority in land management and in landscape research. The natural dynamics of the territories subject to different magnitudes of natural disas-ters, such as those produced by human actions that accelerate processes such as floods, forest fires, pollution of all kinds and increased poverty put the physical and human environment into a state of emergency. This requires actions to pre-vent damage to the landscapes at risk and recov-ery or remediation of landscapes in emergency situations.

The consequences of such phenomena in rela-tion to the landscape, human behavior and the analysis of resilience have been assessed. There-fore, studies will be presented at the conference revealing conclusions and possible proposals to analyze and explore recovery actions in damaged sites.

2. HERITAGE LANDSCAPES_PRESERVATION The aim is to present the problems that arise during the care, development, protection and preservation of landscapes and the prevention


�

measures they may offer at different scales, for example: national parks, reserves, historic pathways and sacred sites. Specific cases will be presented with both positive and negative results, developments and proposals. 3. PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES This category will explore productive and inac-tive landscapes, landscaped paths, cultural and tourist landscapes. An example of this could be; vineyards and wineries combined with art and extensive crop production including soybeans and wheat, miscellaneous production, intensive peri-urban crops, profitable crops and degraded rural landscapes. Presentations will consider what to do with these landscapes and how to integrate them into productive practice from a sustainable perspective over time.

IFLA 51st CONGRESS | Buenos Aires | ArgentinaDate: June 5th through the 7th 2014Venue: Pontifical Universidad Catholic Argentina (UCA) - San Austin HallKeynote Speakers: Fumiaki Takano (Japan), Martin Rein Cano - Tooted (Germany), Theodora Fernan-dez Larrinaga (Chile), Beatriz Franco (Paraguay), Rolando León (Argentina), Tomas Abraham (Argen-tina), Hitesh Mehta (USA).Technical Visits: Tigre, Landscape of Buenos Aires, Country DayRound Tables For Professionals: Call for AbstractsFor Students: Student Competition, Student CharetteWeb page: http://www.iflaargentina2014.com/E-mail: [email protected]

Thinking / action, earth / home, territory / land-scapes, these are the themes that invite us to the 51st Congress where we will reflect on the strong relationship of man to nature and his corre-sponding ethics.

I would like this event to integrate all the of the ideas and possible actions for a better world related to a better landscape. For this reason we extend this invitation and are eager to see you and share our commitment to the Landscape.

IFLA’s Financial Opportunities

Damian Tang, President of SILA

The invitation to write an article contributing to IFLA’s financial opportunities came as a surprise and a flattering one. Thanks to our current IFLA President Desiree Martinez and our next incom-ing President Kathryn Moore who have given me this opportunity. I would also like to acknowledge Mike Owen, CEO at ITSMF-UK, Joel Albizo, Ex-ecutive Director at Council of Landscape Archi-tectural Registration Boards and John Easthope, Honorary Treasurer of IFLA whom I have been working closely with in a task group over the last few months to formulate strategies and recom-mendations on revenue generation for IFLA to improve our financial situation. The collective wisdom and experience from these gentlemen has further contributed to my growth. I do not consider myself an expert and definitely do not feel that I am able comment single-hand-edly on what IFLA should do, but rather, I would like to share some learning points from what I have gathered over the years as the president of the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects (SILA). I will also talk about how I have con-tinuously expanded myself, holding concurrent appointments on the presidential advisory com-mission for the Design Business Chamber Singa-pore (DBCS) and as the international presidential advisor for the Asian Creative Industries Alliance.

THE TOUGH BEGINNINGRunning a non-profit organization is no ordinary business. In fact, it is a tricky business with no profit but many individual stakeholders to ac-count for. Ironically, such full-time business gets trickier when it is run on a voluntary basis while the president is still holding on to a separate full time job that pays the bills. What makes it worse is that most of us are considered designers and landscape architects by professional training. With completely no business or management


�


background to leverage on, it is not surprising that we do not know what it takes specifically to grow a non-profit organization. But I do know, that the moment we accept the presidential role, there is no turning back and all eyes are on you. Sound familiar?

I was a landscape architect when I first took on the presidential role for SILA back in 2010. I’m now in my third term (two years in a term) and in my 5th year running as the president. The SILA constitution was amended during the 2012 SILA annual general meeting where members unani-mously agreed that I be given the opportunity to be re-elected as the president. However I was only allowed a maximum of three terms in the constitutional amendment. This is to ensure that SILA does not send the wrong message out to the industry that we have limited leaders. I also want to ensure that my last term puts in place a suc-cession plan that is key to the growth and sus-tainability of the organization and the leadership behind it.

ASKING “WHERE WE ARE NOW”Like most institutes, SILA had a humble start with passionate and committed leadership from our founders and predecessors. But have we been doing well as a professional body since we started in 1985? Considering that we are nearing 30 years since our establishment, could we be doing badly? Perhaps, and maybe it is difficult for some to tell.

The hard question to ask is not how old we are as an organization, but how strong we are. It does not matter if an organization exists for 5, 10 or even 30 years. The moment we are not able to stay ahead of our challenges, we will slow to a grinding halt. SILA indeed came to a slowdown when members became disinterested and lost faith in the institute; government agencies took no interest and our profession seemed to be slid-ing back into unawareness and lack of representa-tion.

In 2010 SILA took a bold step in soul searching and acknowledged our situation. It took an open mind and an open heart to embrace criticism on where we had done badly, what we were not do-ing and what we had been doing too much or too little of.

3 STAGES OF GROWTHOver the years I saw SILA in three stages; surviv-ing, emerging and sustaining. SILA is reaching the end of its emerging stage and optimistically entering into the sustaining stage; at least this is what we have been told and believe. When I was first elected as president, I saw that SILA was operating in surviving mode. Surviving to create awareness for our profession; surviv-ing to get members’ support and chasing dues; surviving to get partners and agencies’ endorse-ment; surviving and fire-fighting with all things about membership administration and saving money from the dues to keep ourselves afloat. The situation persisted until things began to take a slow turn when a collective decision from the council chose to settle for a full-time secretariat. This was followed by organizing conferences where we put others in the forefront by recogniz-ing partners, agencies and other professionals who have contributed to the landscape profession by celebrating their diversity of knowledge and achievement. I also began investing personal time and money to offer my knowledge and expertise to other organizations. I focused on representing SILA as a speaker in order to have the SILA logo in different marketing collaterals for visibility and awareness. We began knocking on the doors of other relevant institutions and councils from within the construction and landscape industry to ask if SILA could partner with them to extend the reach and attendance of events. The idea was to leverage on each other in order to increase awareness. FOCUSED DIVERSIFICATIONWhen I saw the opportunity for SILA to diversify its growth into the design industry and have a voice in the creative sector, I took it on immedi-


�

ately. Not only did we slowly expand our network in the landscape industry with many stakeholders but we began to create awareness and interest in the creative sector where we saw unprecedented opportunities for ourselves and the ability to grow our members’ business capabilities together with other industry partners. We leveraged on successful and “big brother” associations just to have SILA play small parts in their events. We also collaborated on various levels in different forums where we relied on strong databases, networks and partnerships with the commitment to go an extra mile for key, intangible returns. We learned the way big shows were executed, the way part-nerships were established and how agreements were signed with the interest of larger communi-ties and the alignment of visions that would pay back in the long run. We emerged strongly over a short period of time and started sustaining. Mem-bership increased. Revenue increased. We grew. THINK BUSINESSAn important lesson I learned is that even for a non-profit organization to grow and sustain we have to think business. To operate a non-profit organization is not to make profit, but to gener-ate sustainable revenue so that we can continue to contribute optimally back to our members. As continuous dialogue and collaborative engage-ments were pulled closer, international parties took notice and interest in SILA. Within a year, SILA had grown its outreach of local, regional and international networks by more than 500% with several invitations for partnerships and endorse-ments for international events and keynote pre-sentations. We established ourselves as a reliable brand; a brand name of an institute with good networks and reputation. We made continuous commitments as a supporting organization. We took calculated risks and made informed deci-sions on our resource utilization for milestone events. We also began building strategic partners who saw the value of growing with us on a long term basis. We started seeing ourselves sustain-ing in areas of membership and partnership while

we continued to work on filling in gaps and in our areas of needed improvement. LEVERAGE ON COLLECTIVE WISDOMDrawing parallels from my experience in SILA with IFLA, I see IFLA has far greater potential and opportunity. SILA grew from local to international with the commitment of establishing awareness, reliability and quality. IFLA by nature is a world brand, an international organization with regional member countries, large numbers of members and passionate professionals. IFLA must consider taking advantage of its international position and package itself to work with other world organiza-tions so that it can establish its own awareness and anchor its existence worldwide. The focus should be driven by issues that concern our pro-fession, but it should not be targeted at audiences like us. Selling the same antidote to ourselves over and over again would just leave us overdosed on our own complacency and oblivious to getting into other people’s worlds. We do not come from our own agenda, ironically we begin with others. This is when people will start listening to us. Em-powering dialogues and collaboration with bodies of engineers, architects, business developers and even politicians who share aligned objectives is a good place to start exploring. Being on one of the presidential advisory commissions for the DBCS allowed me to see that even the most promising leader (Mr. Tai Lee Siang, president of DBCS and the president of the Design Board of Directors for the World Green Building Council) requires the collective wisdom of experts from other fields such as legal, branding, marketing and even from top business gurus who can help to pave the way forward and build alliances. I am inspired by his spirit of collaboration and humility. With no sur-prises, I saw how his associations and businesses soar under his leadership.

WE ARE OUR STRONGHOLD We know we can never do things alone. The col-lective commitment from the council and a group of volunteers whom we call the sub-committee or task group members, is of paramount impor-tance. Empowering these leaders and supporters


�


with key appointments and generously acknowl-edging their contribution is something not to be undermined. I firmly believe that nothing comes free for any individual no matter how motivated or how passionate we are in our work. Having someone give you a pat on the shoulder and acknowledging you by name or by designation are small gestures that will last people that extra mile.

In summary, creating financial opportunities for IFLA does not have a straight forward solution. It does not rely solely on a president, CEO or any business guru to give the magical touch. It will come from a concerted effort from the EXCO, task groups and down to the members who must first be aligned with the larger vision of what we have set out to embark on. In areas where we lack knowledge and expertise, we should leverage and generously acknowledge these people for their contribution. Lastly, in order to sustain this over the years, we need commitment from our members as well as commitment to put in place a succession plan with a structure and framework to ensure that the legacy continues.

“Do not see ourselves as one, see ourselves as the world, and IFLA taking on the world begins.”

- Damian Tang, President of SILA

FROM PROJECTION TO ACTION: Ecological Corridor of the Eastern Hills

Diana Wiesner

In many landscape projects and where landscape planners are involved, most projects remain on paper and in dreams. These kinds of results gen-erate a level of frustration within the designer and a detriment to the possibilities. In the formation of landscape architects, there is a weakness in terms of management. This text seeks to high-light the importance of a real commitment from the designer to follow up on these topics.

In my case, I actively participated in the formula-tion of a project in 2007 as a management strat-egy for the border of the Eastern Mountains. Although the proposal was highly applauded, awarded and published, the district authorities who were in charge of the proposal did not see it as a political priority. Therefore we created a group of professionals, formalized into the Hills Foundation of Bogotá, willing to commit to the management and achievement of specific actions necessary to implement the border project.

The Ecological and Recreational Corridor of the Eastern Hills project proposed to recover the sacredness of the hills through three main strate-gies:


�

Urban outlook point from the hills

Outdoor classrooms in the hills


�


1) The Social strategy, called the major social pact of the border of the city, with the intention of inte-grating into the communities sustainable management practices, environmental and cultural educa-tional programs, patronage pacts with neighbors and communication and security networks among other actions. 2) The Biophysics strategy, with the objective of increasing biodiversity and fostering biological con-nectivity. This strategy included ecological corridors around and alongside the river, greenhouses of native species, investigation projects and restoration and recovery processes, giving priority to the management of the water in a sustainable, visible and lucid way.

3) The Spatial strategy: This strategy attempts to physically delimit the borderline of the city with the reserve through an area of passive recreation where the pedestrian must observe the hills and visit initiatives such as parks, agro parks, native species greenhouses, learning stations and viewpoints among others, with the objective of fostering inspection and observation by citizens in the reserve.

This proposal, endorsed by all entities in its moment, published in all media as the best environmental initiative in the last half of century in Bogotá and taken as a model for border management in coun-tries such as China, Argentina, Russia and Spain among others has been received by many community youth initiatives as well as border universities and prestigious research institutions such as the Alexan-der Von Humboldt Institute.


10


11


After six years, the SIGNING OF THE BORDER PACT was realized in June of 2013 by the mayor’s office. In November the pronunciation of THE RULING OF THE STATE COUNCIL approving the “FRANJA DE ADECUACION” (land between the city and the forest reserve), demanded the devel-opment of social inclusion initiatives in which THE FOUNDATION’S work would be recognized and included within the verification committee that would be following up on what was agreed upon in this ruling.

This ruling protects collective rights and orders that in the 415 non-developed hectares there is a projected zone where ecological and recreational aspects are promoted in order to compensate for the environmental damage suffered by the popu-lation.

The proposal, which will be taking culture to the Hills, promoting human relations, ethics, soli-darity and ecological values is becoming visible within the first strategies that revolve around the watersheds and the recovery of streams as the social and ecological connections in the city. Ad-ditionally, pilot projects and social initiatives that

generate networks and articulate real actions are fundamental for this strategy to work.

The result is now evident in citizen pacts, in their behavior and interaction with the border zone. Universities, schools, institutes and private land owners are now acting very differently than they were 6 years ago. The border pact has had more impact on behavior than on construction. The landscape must generate social transformation, which takes much more time than develop-ing new infrastructure. We must germinate and multiply the spiritual value of landscape with the majority.

Recovering Landscape and Place Výškovice-Wischkowitz

Klara Salzmann

Pilsen – The European Capital of Culture 2015 is hereby announcing an International landscape Call for Ideas. Topic: Recovering and landscape renewal in the borderland of West Bohemia based


12

on the model of the abandoned community of Výškovice – Wischkowitz, part of Chodová Planá (Kuttenplan) near Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad).

The call is patronized by the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA), the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA Europe), CIVILSCAPE, ILBA, the German Association of Landscape Ar-chitects (BDLA), Bezirk Oberpfalz and Landkreis Cham. The Call partner is the City of Chodová Planá. RECOVERING LANDSCAPE AND PLACE, VÝŠKOVICE WISCHKOWITZ INTERNATIONAL LANDSCAPE CALL FOR IDEASThe territory in question is located in the very heart of Europe, populated and cultivated since the dawn of ages. For many centuries, the Czechs and Germans used to live here side by side in peace. The tragedy of the present situation is rooted in the horrors of WW2; the forced exodus of the ethnic Germans in the aftermath of the war and the following communist regime that forced a serious interruption in the area’s continuous development.

Today, in our discussion we are not going to place blame on anyone. Instead, we are looking for ideas on how to improve the current situation. We want to revive this area and create a home once again for the local inhabitants.

Currently, the Czech - German landscape renewal is not the only problem we are facing. There is a European-wide issue of rural depopulation. Let us together propose ideas aimed at future rural development with all aspects of associated socio-cultural and cultural landscape values. The com-munity of Výškovice - Wischkowitz and vicinity is our model area for idea collection.

The Call was announced on February 11, 2014. PURPOSE AND MISSION OF THE CALL FOR IDEAS The purpose and mission of the call in a broader sense is to support the issue of cultural landscape renewal in the former Sudetenland.

Our goal is to obtain ideas for potential options in the renewal of the cultural landscape of the for-mer Sudetenland, based on the model example of the small village of Výškovice - Wischkowitz. Authors and/or author teams of five selected ideas will be invited to take part in the follow-up workshop. After the workshop, authors / author teams of five selected ideas will form in the work-shop the final proposals. The secondary purpose for the call is to select the most suitable proposals for land art interventions. We are looking forward to• Developing tools for a European vision of ter-ritorial renewal and repopulation.• Improving the communication and cooperation between Czechs and Germans.• Searching for and working with the Genius Loci.• Defining cultural landscape values together with the residents.• Defining local values and making them tourist attractions.• Renewing local values in and around Výškovice – Wischkowitz.• Identifying potential meeting places for the former, current and future inhabitants.

The proposals should show how to utilize local/re-gional potential and resources (materials, culture, economics, etc.) and how to involve them in the realization process. WHO CAN APPLY?Anyone, this call is unlimited. There are no re-quirements regarding nationality, education, profession, citizenship or age. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS The submission should to be submitted in .pdf format – description - (size A4) with a maximum of 6 pages. The graphic portion (size A3), should include up to 3 pages specifying: • Initial impulses for the region’s development• Aid in overcoming the emotional gap between former and current inhabitants would be certainly a big impulse for the region


13


• Creating places of identity and places for mu-tual encounters facilitating integration • Augmenting Land art related to place

The deadline for sending the Applications with Proposals is April 28, 2014

AWARD The authors of the five selected ideas will be awarded 1000 Euros and will be invited to the follow-up workshop. PILSEN 2015 will also pay to the workshop participants the cost of transporta-tion and accommodation (up to two people from each team).

Each workshop participant will be awarded with 1500 Euros after submitting his/her final proposal in compliance with the PILSEN 2015 specification. COPYRIGHT The selected authors and Pilsen 2015 will share the copyright.

THE SELECTION PANELTill Rehwaldt (GE), vice-president BDLAAna Luengo (SP), president IFLA EuropePavlína Mišíková (SK), international landscape ecologist Christine Rotenbacher (A), landscape architect Vladimír Sitta (CZ), landscape architect

SUBSTITUTE MEMBERSMichal Fišer (CZ), Czech Chamber of ArchitectsKlára Salzmann (CZ), landscape architect, Pilsen 2015Nigel Thorne (GB), Former president IFLA Europe IMPORTANT DATESDeadline for submitting questions, March 31, 2014On the spot inspection, March 14, 2014Submission deadline , April 28, 2014Selection Panel’s decision, May 15 - 16, 2014Workshop Chodová Planá, Kuttenplan, July 21 - 27, 2014Exhibition of the submitted works, March 2015Opening of the Land Art Exhibits, October 2015

CALL ORGANIZERPilsen 2015 European Capital of Culture.Send your questions and applications with pro-posals by email to: [email protected]

Winner of the IFLA Trophy Competition

IFLA News Brief

Brussels, February 26, 2014.IFLA is happy to announce the name of the win-ner of the Trophy Competition for the Sir Geof-frey Jellicoe Award. The Jury also wishes to give a round of virtual applause to all the entrants for their thoughtfulness and imagination.

Desirable practical qualities were that the trophy should be pleasing to handle, which included having a certain weight; hard to break; easy to clean and simple in massing.


14

Mariano Filippini’s proposal had excellent qualities, simplicity, elegance and force which led to a unanimous vote from the jury. The members found it very appealing, particularly the examples where the concrete base is inlaid with colored glass fragments. The dual wood box too is a delightful feature.

Mariano Filippini is an Industrial Design student at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and will be granted €5.000 sponsored by the German nursery Lorberg.

“The concept of the trophy is about the relationship between nature and urbanization and the inter-vention of the landscape designer at looking for harmony and balance. Wood is natural, concrete is a human intervention and the line that connects them is the landscape designer.”

THE JURYChair: Hal Moggridge OBE PPLI - Assistant to Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe (1960-63)Desiree Martínez, IFLA PresidentIlya Mochalov, IFLA Secretary GeneralJohn Easthope, IFLA TreasurerTunji Adejumo, IFLA Vice-President for AfricaCarlos Jankilevich, IFLA Vice-President for AmericasDato Ismail Ngah, IFLA Vice-President for Asia-PacificAna Luengo, IFLA Vice-President for Europe

Documents

IFLA Newsletter February 2014