ELASA is European Landscape Architecture Student Association which promotes cooperation, exchange and mobility of the students within the association and also gives support for developing landscaping ideas and concepts across Europe. The association itself has around 1000 members and operates in a close connection with the IFLA, IFLA Europe and the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS).

Each year an annual meeting (summer) and a smaller mini-meeting (spring) are organised. Every meeting is organised in a different country by landscape architecture students of a university from that country.

ELASA shapes landscape architecture students from all over Europe. Each country is represented by a country representative. ELASA meetings are really important for the association because this is one of the main ways of keeping communication, sharing information and planning the next meetings.

IFLA Europe provides funds each year for ELASA representatives to join IFLA Europe Delegates and Executive Council at the General Assembly and present ELASA and their activities.

2022 ELASA Annual meeting ‘Transforming Landscapes’ 14-22 August 2022, Rapperswil, Switzerland!

IFLA Europe is proud to announce and support 2022 ELASA annual meeting ‘Transforming Landscapes’ which took place 14-22 August 2022 in Rapperswil, Switzerland!

ELASA - European Landscape Architecture Student Association - promotes cooperation, exchange and mobility of all European students within the association and also gives support for developing landscaping ideas and concepts across Europe. This summer, Switzerland will become the first host country for an annual ELASA meeting since 2019. Due to the pandemic the meetings were cancelled for the last two years.

ELASA 2022 took place 14-22 August 2022 in Rapperswil, Switzerland.
The 8 days meeting will welcomed students from more than 10 countries around Europe. The association itself has around 1000 members and operates in a close connection with IFLA Europe - the European Region of International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA EUROPE) and the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS). Each year an annual meeting (summer) and a smaller mini-meeting (spring) are arranged. Every meeting is organised in a different country by landscape architecture students of a university from that country.

These meetings are really important for ELASA because this is one of the main ways of keeping communication, sharing information and planning the next meetings. Our Swiss National Association of Landscape Architecture BSLA/FSAP is fully supporting ELASA!

ELASA 2022 - the 8 days’ meeting - welcomed students from more than 10 countries around Europe. IFLA Europe Vice President for Education Margarida Cancela d’Abreu attended the event on behalf of IFLA Europe to speak about the issues of general situation of landscape architecture education programmes across Europe
and the importance of landscape architecture programmes being recognised by IFLA Europe.

2022 ELASA annual meeting’s topic was ‘Transforming Landscapes’. Switzerland is influenced by different types of landscape and shows them all on a small scale. From untouched nature in the alps to artificial nature to urban landscapes in big cities one can find every type of landscape within a two hour drive.

Various interventions in the past 150 years have shaped the country in different ways. In the beginning of the industrial revolution the need for farming surface forced the government to provide enough space for the farmers, big moor fields were dried out and created big changes in not only the landscape but also in demographics and lifestyle. Such massive transformations are not just a thing of the past but are also taking place today. For example, not long ago, the new Gotthard railway tunnel has been constructed. Leading to massive re-naturation projects & gravel dumpsites while also better bringing people closer together across the alps.

But landscapes are changing even without huge infrastructure projects. Temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting and rainfall becomes more and more unreliable. Cities are looking for ways to fight heat waves and heavy rainfall events and are therefore planing green lungs in the city centre.

Therefore the theme for this years ELASA meeting was ‘Transforming Landscape’. Our main goal was to discuss a variety of landscapes – natural, transformed and built ones. This way we’ll be able to cover small & big interventions across the full spectrum of Swiss landscape architecture and how our future colleagues are handling the
challenges of today and the future.

ELASA meeting 2022 was a 8-day journey with workshops, site visits, lectures and much more and took ELASA participants through different parts of Switzerland and covered the wide range of landscape architecture.

Next meetings

During the general meeting it was decided that the next meetings will be held:

2023 mini-meeting in Austria & Hungary,
2023 annual meeting in France,
2024 mini-meeting in Turkey,
2024 annual meeting in Sweden.

ELASA needs more contacts with students and volunteers who wish to engage in this exciting opportunity! Updated info or more info is needed from: Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, UK.

If your country already has a representative member and you would like to hear from Elasa ask to join with Elasa followers list. For that please write your wish elasa@elasa.org.

We encourage our National Associations to share this information among their members and their Student Associations and get them involved!

ELASA Presentation at 2020 IFLA Europe General Assembly

To find out more about ELASA please visit their website ELASA