The European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools, ECLAS, is an association of university teachers and researchers in landscape architecture, whose main membership consists of university departments and faculties where landscape architecture teaching and research is the main focus of activity.
The European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools exists to foster and develop scholarship in landscape architecture throughout Europe by strengthening contacts and enriching the dialogue between members of Europe’s landscape academic community and by representing the interests of this community within the wider European social and institutional context.
In pursuit of this goal the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools seeks to build upon the Continent’s rich landscape heritage and intellectual traditions to:
- Further and facilitate the exchange of information, experience and ideas within the discipline of landscape architecture at the European level, stimulating discussion and encouraging co-operation between Europe’s landscape architecture schools through, amongst other means, the promotion of regular international meetings, in particular an annual conference
- Foster and develop the highest standards of landscape architecture education in Europe by, amongst other things, providing advice and acting as a forum for sharing experience on course and curriculum development, and supporting collaborative developments in teaching
- Promote interaction between academics and researchers within the discipline of landscape architecture, thereby furthering the development of a Europe-wide landscape academic community, through, amongst other things, the development of common research agendas and the establishment of collaborative research projects (for example EU projects)
- Represent the interests of scholarship in landscape architecture within Europe’s higher education system, encourage interdisciplinary and international awareness and enhance public understanding of the discipline
- Stimulate dialogue with European landscape architectural practice and with other international organisations furthering landscape scholarship
IFLA Europe and ECLAS have signed Memorandum on Cooperation and ECLAS representative is a member of IFLA Europe School Recognition Panel.
Le:Notre Institute
The aim of the LE:NOTRE Institute is to provide a focal point for landscape specialists of all disciplines, from theory and practice and from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. It offers places where they can come together to exchange ideas and deepen their understanding of the landscape and of each other’s approach to it.
The LE:NOTRE Institute (LNI) is associated to ECLAS. The LE:NOTRE Institute is overseen by the ECLAS Executive Committee and the General Assembly and run by the LE:NOTRE Institute Board.
At present, the LE:NOTRE Institute focuses on the following activities:
community, recently increasingly by means of ERASMUS projects
- Organisation of the annual landscape forum together with a European university, since 2015 combined with an international student competition
- Developing and offering online courses and e-lectures to the wider landscape
- Maintenance of the website landscape-portal.org
LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum
The LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum is an event during which academics and local stakeholders collaborate in order to address a local landscape challenges. At the heart of the LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum are four thematic working groups and three cross-cutting groups. Participants prepare the themes in advance and undertake fieldwork during the meeting using the landscape of the Forum venue city region as a case study.
Interdisciplinary dialogue and discussion between the participants are placed at the heart of the Forum, rather than the one-sided presentation of papers. Participation in the Forum by teachers, researchers and students, from a range of different ‘landscape-related’ disciplines as well as practitioners is also central to the interdisciplinary process of discourse and mutual learning which is at its heart.
International Student Competition
The international student competition invites students across countries and disciplines to envision alternative futures for the landscapes on which the subsequent landscape forum will focus.
The competition task usually requires an analytical and conceptual process at various scales, from landscape to site design.
2020 competition’ focuses on the cross-border landscape of Bratislava. To learn more about Competition and previous editions, please follow this link.
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2019 Zagreb
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2018 Gozo-Malta
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2017 Freising
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2016 Pafos
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2015 Bucharest
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2014 Sarajevo
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2013 Rome
- LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum 2012 Antalya
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