2022 IFLA Europe General Assembly and MARK Finland International Landscape Architecture Congress, Helsinki, Finland 13-16 October 2022!

Landscape Architects are currently offered a significant leading role in the development of the landscape. Landscape architecture is an area that concretises how we view our environment and that makes our society’s relationship with nature visible.

The aim of design has always been to increase well-being. The 19th century was marked by technological advances and engineers played a leading role in developing the industrializing world. In the 20th century, alongside technology and ecology, humanistic values rose in discourse; aesthetics and social dimensions. Architects took a central role and set out to solve the challenges of the post-war world.

Now in the 21st century it is Landscape Architects’ turn. The element of nature and the post-humanist perspective add to the goals of design, and traditional design processes go hand in hand with a with a greater understanding of the interaction of technology, man, and nature, and their mutual relationships.

As the operating environment and the issues to be solved in it become more and more complex, Landscape Architects have the necessary know-how to coordinate different requirements. The focus of design is increasingly shifting from shaping the end result to controlling the entire process, and the Landscape Architect profession provides the necessary skills for this.

Boldness

By raising the profile of the debate, we see that taking on a socially significant expert role requires courage and responsibility. Until now, the formation of our profession has required taking bold action, and now there is a greater need for action than ever before. It is time for Landscape Architects to take on a leading role in the development of the landscape. We ask, under what conditions can we, as Landscape Architects, act more boldly at this moment, and by what means will we redeem this mandate? How can each of us act boldly in our own work and how do we see our own responsibility in our actions?

Beauty

Aesthetics is one of the cornerstones of landscape architecture. There are now numerous new themes on the design table to solve and coordinate. For this reason, it is timely to ask what is the role of beauty and aesthetics in landscape architecture. The skill of our profession to create beauty undoubtedly adds value to projects, but how can we make better use of this expertise? What is the value of beauty in a world of change and crisis?

Boldness and Beauty

By bringing these two themes together, we want to launch an internal identity debate within the profession. Can these boldness and beauty together form the guiding themes for the design of the urban landscape of the 21st century? Through what examples, design projects, and actions can these themes be defined in landscape architecture? Will one come before the other, or are boldness and beauty prerequisites for each other?

General Assembly programme:

Our Sponsors:

Hunter Industries is a global manufacturer of innovative irrigation systems and solutions founded in 1981. It is a family-owned company whose mission is to produce innovative products of the highest quality and back them with unwavering customer support. It is precisely regarding this feedback that the relation with IFLA EUROPE is fundamental, as the input when designing and maintaining gardens is important for the constant evolution of our professions.

Hunter Industries is a family-owned global company that provides high quality, efficient solutions for the irrigation, outdoor lighting, and custom moulding industries. Our diverse array of products can be seen everywhere from residential landscapes, to stadiums, national landmarks, theme parks, city parks, commercial complexes, hotels, and municipal buildings around the world.

Headquartered in San Marcos, CA since 1981, Hunter is a market leader in producing and marketing a full range of water-efficient, easy-to-use irrigation solutions for residential, commercial, and golf course applications. Designed with the demands of irrigation professionals in mind, the current Hunter irrigation product line includes pop-up gear-driven rotors, high-efficiency rotary nozzles, spray sprinklers, valves, controllers, central controllers, professional landscape drip, and weather sensors.

Since the beginning, Hunter’s core business interest has been producing products that allow irrigation professionals to create solutions that use as little water and energy as possible to create optimal landscape function and ambiance. In the interest of sustainability and maximizing our infrastructure and capabilities, we have diversified into the landscape lighting industry , ensuring the highest quality standards are adhered to.

Beyond efficient product innovation, Hunter is also known as a leader in outstanding customer service, product training and technical support in all of our business segments. Moving forward, Hunter is committed to pushing the boundaries of technology, conservation, quality, and customer experience in every product and project we undertake. In the factory, the office, and the field, we put innovation to work every day for every one of our customers around the world.

Vestre is a Norwegian manufacturer of urban furniture. For more than 70 years, the company has helped create social meeting places for millions of people. The product range includes a wide variety of seating elements, tables, litter bins, bicycle stands and planters.Vestre makes colourful, sustainable and inclusive furniture which encourages people to get together, to care and to participate in everyday democracy. If you travel around Norway, you can find Vestre furniture created back in the 50s. It is still standing, creating social meeting places every day of the year.

In 2022 Vestre opened the doors to the world’s most environmentally friendly and transparent furniture factory: The Plus. It was designed by BIG Bjarke Ingels Group as a completely new kind of factory where people, production, technology, architecture and nature are completely integrated with each other. The building is the first industrial building in Scandinavia to be certified with BREEAM Outstanding, the highest category for assessing the sustainability of buildings.

Vestre has incorporated nine of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into its business philosophy and aims to be recognised as the world’s most sustainable furniture manufacturer. Every year, Vestre gives at least 10% of its profits to sustainable projects around the world. As sustainable products must be durable achieving the
longest possible lifetime is at the heart of Vestre’s production process. The company offers a lifetime guarantee against rust and a 15-year guarantee against wood rot.

All products are designed and manufactured in Scandinavia using renewable energy, local materials and environmentally friendly production technology. Vestre has two factories, one in Sweden and one in Norway. The steel factory in Torsby, Sweden opened in 2013 and was designed by the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta. The second, the Plus, is in Magnor in Norway. All the products that are produced there are quality and environmentally certified in accordance with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and Vestre continuously works on innovation and improvements.

ASUNI SOFT- Since its foundation in 1993, Asuni’s goal has been to provide software and new technologies and give support to design professionals specialized in Architecture, Engineering, Industrial Design, Graphic Design and related industries. During these years, Asuni has become a company group, the most important being Asuni Soft (commercial names are Asuni CAD and icreatia) and McNeel Europe.

The main products of ASUNI are VisualARQ (BIM architectural plugin for Rhino) and Lands Design which is the landscape design software in versions for Rhino, AutoCAD and Civil 3D.

Asuni Group Strategy

The companies in the Asuni Group keep a common strategy aimed at the client’s satisfaction.

Their main goals are:
- Exceed customer expectations
- Improve productivity and optimization of products, processes, staff and customers
- Innovate providing creative and technologically advanced solutions, with wide usability, ease of use and a good quality-price ratio.