ECLAS Conference 2022 “Scales of change” 12-14 September 2022 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Registration for the ECLAS Conference is now open for everyone. Speakers, participants and representatives please register here.
This year’s ECLAS conference (12–14 September 2022) will focus on the question of scales, a challenge that many – if not all – landscape architecture educators, researchers, practitioners and students deal with. This is also the question that our three invited keynote speakers will address in their lectures.
Organized by the Department of Landscape Architecture, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, the ECLAS 2022 conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, will address the question of scales, which is not new to landscape architects. But is one that does not have a definite answer; it needs to be asked again and again. The issue addresses the very identity of the profession and the nature of the context in which landscape architects operate and teach.
The theme is inspired by the 50th anniversary of landscape architecture programs being offered at the University of Ljubljana, as well as the fact that 50 years have passed since the pioneering conference on landscape planning was organized in Ljubljana by Dušan Ogrin (you can read the English and German proceedings to the conference and get inspired here).
During the intervening half-century, landscape architecture has evolved into a mature discipline, and has developed tools and theories for different scales of operation which are able to address a wide spectrum of challenges.
Another driver for this debate is the possible regulation of the profession within the EU and the need for agreed minimum common standards for study programs. How inclusive should this streamlining process be? How much diversity is needed or wanted within the profession?
The conference in Ljubljana will act as a platform to reflect upon the internal processes that shape the profession and position it in the wider context, as well as upon issues of cohesion and fragmentation. The answers to the following questions will be sought in five thematic tracks and its concluding roundtable (The next 50 years) and the doctoral colloquium focus on research through design. The five tracks are:
- Evolution and reflection.
- Relation between design and planning.
- Teaching across scales.
- Context matters.
- Beyond the field.
Read more about the tracks here.
Conference speakers:
Lučka Kajfež Bogataj (left) is a Slovenian climatologist, specialist in agricultural meteorology. She is a full professor and chair of Agrometeorology at the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. At the Faculty she has also been head of the Center for Biometrology since 1966. Professor Kajfež Bogataj is considered to be one of the pioneers researching the impact of climate change, particularly on growth of crops and agricultural production. In 2007 she was named a member of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Geneva and was vice-chair of Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability in the preparation of the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC.
Carl Steinitz (centre) is the Alexander in Victoria Wiley Professor of Landscape Architecture and Professor Emeritus at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. One of the pioneers of the use of the GIS in spatial planning, Professor Steinitz has devoted much of his academic and professional career to improving methods to analyse large land areas and make design decisions about conservation and development. His applied research and teaching focus is on highly valued landscapes that are undergoing substantial pressures for change. He has been Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the Graduate School of Design since 1973. In 2007 he was awarded with the honorary doctorate from the University of Ljubljana. He is currently Honorary Professor at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University
College London.
Martin Prominski (right) is Full Professor and chair of Designing Urban Landscapes at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. He studied landscape planning at TU Berlin and received a Master in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University, GSD. He has a PhD from TU Berlin (2003) and is a registered landscape architect. His current
research focuses on design research strategies, qualification of urban landscapes, and integrative concepts of nature and culture. He is a member of the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, an interdisciplinary platform for research, practice and teaching on urban landscapes, and the Co-founder of the “Sino-German Cooperation Group on Urbanization and Locality Research”
