LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE · Landscape Architecture Month In Africa, April 2014 Fadera Williams 3...

FROM THE PRESIDENT Desiree Martínez 2

Landscape Architecture Month In Africa, April 2014 Fadera Williams 3

Reliving the Moments: NLAM 2014 Phillip Stamper-Halpin 4

ALAROS Activities 2014 Anton Poleshchuk 6

The World Urban Forum (WUF) Desiree Martinez 8

IFLA 2014 Asia Pacific Congress Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia ILAM 12

The Functional Rearrangement of IFLA Ana Luengo 15

2014 IFLA Europe Silver Jubilee IFLA Europe 16

Professor Sun Xiao XiangWinner of The 2014 IFLA SGJA Prof. PhD LIU Xiaoming 17

Landscape And Urban Planning: A Systemic Approach Raquel Tardin 21

In Memorium: Vincent J. Bellafiore Darwina Neal 22

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

IFLA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PresidentDesiree MARTINEZ [email protected]

Secretary General Ilya [email protected]

TreasurerJohn [email protected]

Vice-President African RegionTunjo [email protected]

Vice-President Americas RegionCarlos [email protected]

Vice-President Asia-Pacific RegionDato Ismail BIN [email protected]

Vice-President European RegionAna Luengo [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. 110 MAY 2014

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

N E W S L E T T E R

M O N T H

W O R L D

IFLA Newsletter Issue 110 May 2014

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

It has been a wonderful and very active April-Landscape Architecture Month for me! First I was kindly invited by our Russian friends from ALAROS to a widely broadcasted discussion on city parks and to the opening of an exhibition of the landscape industry. It was terrific to meet our Russian colleagues, chaired by Ms. Taisija Volftrub, and have the opportunity to celebrate and simply spend time with them.

I somehow survived an airline strike (thanks to the support of our Russian friends) and returned home on time to change my bags, throw my clothes into the washing machine and fly the next day to Medellín, Colombia to the World Urban

Forum, to attend to our activities with UN-Habi-tat. It was a huge and very interesting event! I had the opportunity to chat briefly with Joan Clos, the executive director of UN-Habitat. It was a successful event, I would say, especially for landscape architecture. Even Joan Clos during his “World Urban Campaign” speech sounded to me like one of us, defining the city we need.

To close Landscape Architecture Months with a Highlight, I attended the APR-Regional Confer-ence in Kuching, Malaysia, where our colleagues presented an award to the former Prime Minister. This had a fantastic effect to promote the profes-sion placing us on the front page of many newspapers in Malaysia.

It was an amazing experience!

With a big hug,

Desiree Martínez


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Commemoration of Landscape Architecture Month In AfricaApril 2014

Fadera Williams

Landscape month is celebrated in April interna-tionally and this April in particular also commem-orates Earth Day (April 22nd) in Africa. Several activities took place in order to commemorate the world landscape month in April.

NIGERIA In Nigeria, there has been a development of regional chapters within the National Society of Landscape architects. These chapters cover the south/west, south/east, south, north/central and the north chapters based in Lagos, Owerri, Abuja and Zaria respectively.

As landscape architecture programs are be-ing run at the master’s level at the University of Lagos and the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, the emergence of graduates from these two institutions has brought to light the need to strengthen the association through its different regions. In Lagos, the south/west chapter held a one day landscape forum in conjunction with the Department of Architecture from the University

of Lagos on April 25th. The theme of the forum was ‘Citiscapes- Redefining the Context of Nige-rian Cities’. The keynote speaker for this forum was the Architect Femi Majekodunmi, a past President of UIA (International Architects Union). He spoke extensively on the importance of col-laboration between the different disciplines of building architecture, urban architecture, marine architecture as well as architecture engineering to solve environmental issues. He spoke from an international perspective, where the UIA, IFLA & ISOCARP all collaborate on environmental is-sues, employing a multidisciplinary approach. He opened up the floor on the discourse at hand and the other speakers presented teaser presen-tations that inspired discussions regarding the following subthemes: architectural physiognomy, urban morphology, design with nature, public realm/ placemaking and metropolitan open space systems. The forum was well attended by students and members of the academic commu-nity. Additionally, students and lecturers from the Department of Architecture at Caleb Universi-ty, Imota and Lagos (a privately owned university in the state of Lagos) also participated. An award was presented to the keynote speaker in recogni-tion of his experience in the field of architecture and his support for the cause of landscape archi-tecture in Nigeria. The forum was well concluded by the president of the south/west chapter of the

Participants at the forum

Femi Majekodunmi (keynote speaker)


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SLAN. Post forum actions included the develop-ment and review of academic papers presented under the different subthemes and the publishing of a book of landscape architecture readings as an offshoot of the landscape forum.

SOUTH AFRICA In South Africa, there are three regions; Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Western Cape. The Gauteng and Cape regions have the most mem-bers and thus most activities takes place within these regions. Cape Town has been selected as the World Design Capital (CTWDC) of 2014 under the theme: “Live Design, Transform Life” and thus most of ILASA’s activities have been focused on this theme.

Landscape month in APRIL has inspired the South African association to proclaim the month of September Landscape Month for South Africa as it also coincides with Arbor Month.

Other initiatives being embarked upon by the ILASA include, the bi-annual conference planned from September 4-5, at the University of Cape Town and associated with CTWDC with the theme, Landscape Architecture: Reflection and Innovation in Design, where we hope to welcome

(Chairman of the forum proceedings) Prof. Leke Oduwaye, keynote Speaker, President South/West Chapter of SLAN ,Fadera Williams presentaing the award to the keynote speaker

350 delegates from South Africa and beyond. An initiative similar to that of CTWDC is cur-rently running in Gauteng called The 2014 Cool Capital Biennale. The initiative, which is citizen-led, “wants to bring about visual perception and actual change to Pretoria”, the administrative capital of South Africa. Also a process has been kick-started to develop a landscape architectural journal for South Africa.

Reliving the Moments: NLAM 2014

Phillip Stamper-Halpin

Under the theme of Career Discovery with a focus on underrepresented minorities, the American Society of Landscape Architects spurred a move-ment in the United States, teaching children, young adults, and even teachers just how artfully landscape architects design their world. From community parks to residential design, there’s a field out there for any ambitious student, regard-less of the color of their skin.

The U.S. population will be much more racially and ethnically diverse by 2060, according to projections by the U.S. Census Bureau. The to-tal minority population increased by 88 percent between 1980 and 2000, while the non-Hispanic white population grew by only 7.9 percent. Even so, the landscape architecture profession consid-erably underperforms against these numbers. In a recent ASLA survey of graduating landscape ar-chitecture students, nearly 84 percent of respon-dents were Caucasian, 12 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander, 6 percent answered Hispanic/La-tino, 2 percent identified as an American Indian, while a mere 1 percent were African-American.


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These numbers have held steady in the U.S. for nearly 13 years; so it was time to make a change!

To start April off on the right foot, ASLA launched two new educational resources that will help young people and teachers explore the landscape architecture profession—a newly redesigned Career Discovery website (http://www.asla.org/yourpath/index.html) and the new Tools for Teachers (http://www.asla.org/toolsforteachers.aspx). The website also includes two new videos “Personal Paths” and “Why Become a Landscape Architect?”that feature diverse landscape archi-tects and designers as they explain how land-scape architecture is the perfect career for art and science oriented students.

Fold-out brochures were also created to accom-pany and promote the new Career Discovery web resource. ASLA chapters and student members pledged to take these new brochures into more than 250 local middle and high schools across the country.

Also in April, ASLA members from Alaska to Florida joined together to raise the public aware-ness of landscape architecture through nearly 60 public events, including community design char-rettes, city tours, school presentations and advo-cacy days.

Some examples of projects and events from our chapters:

• The Arizona Chapter provided conversations on how public and private designs contribute to community and individual healthy places. This was the third year landscape architects in Tucson have done these presentations for the public.• Connecticut raised awareness of the profession as well as held important advocacy initiatives focused towards state legislators as part of their Advocacy Day.• The Illinois Chapter spread the word about what landscape architects do while standing in front of the most interesting and notable landscapes in the Chicago area. Participants spent an entire day outside, talking to the public about the profes-sion.• ASLA Indiana commissioned a local non-profit to create an art piece that shows all components of landscape architecture. This piece was put on display at the Central Library, and was taken to Earth Day Indiana to raise awareness of the pro-fession.• The Ohio Chapter joined the Bosswood Tree Initiative at Wolfe Park to aid in planting multiple new trees. • Representatives from St. Louis ASLA went to Citygarden in downtown St. Louis to spread the word about landscape architecture to the public for Earth Day.

Earth Day Festival


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In all, we had 35 chapters report NLAM activi-ties, offering most of the nearly 60 public events included on our 2014 Activities List. Take a look at all 2014 activities here, http://www.asla.org/NationalLandscapeArchitectureMonthDetail.aspx?id=42496.

There was also a strong social media push to go alongside NLAM activities. Throughout the week-end of April 26th, Olmsted’s birthday, of course, ASLA chapters and members took their celebra-tion to Twitter, flooding the #NLAM hashtag with pictures of their favorite Olmsted-designed parks. ASLA kept the conversation going throughout the entire month with 30 Days of NLAM, a special

Central Library Display

social interaction initiative that brought land-scape architects, allied professions and the public together to talk about landscape architecture every day of April.

In all, it was a wonderful, successful year in raising awareness for the profession in our communities and helping students discover their path to land-scape architecture, all while having a great time.

ASLA is happy to announce that, in April 2015, National Landscape Architecture Month will be renamed World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM), in recognition of the profession’s global impact and to align with WLAM celebrations around the world.

ALAROS Activities 2014

Anton Poleshchuk

ALAROS is a full member of IFLA representing landscape architects from the Russian Federation.During the 48th IFLA World Council meeting in Rapperswil, Switzerland in 2011, the Coun-cil unanimously approved the 52nd IFLA World Council to take place in Moscow and the World Congress to take place in Saint-Petersburg, Rus-sia, in June of 2015.

Within a year, we could see at least three re-markable events on the horizon for the Russian landscape architecture community. This year, ALAROS is celebrating its 5th anniversary in col-laboration with The Russian National Award in Landscape Architecture. It is relative, whether 5 years is a long time or not, but one thing is for sure, this is an important milestone for the pro-fession in Russia.

The next big happening for ALAROS will be the preparation for the upcoming 52nd IFLA World Council and World Congress here in Russia in 2015. All the strategy, operation and manage-ment decisions of ALAROS will now be aimed at preparing and supporting IFLA events. As a


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matter of fact, this is the first time in history that Russia has received an opportunity to invite professionals from all over the world to discuss problems of sustainable development, quality of life and other important professional issues. Our modern cities’ environments are a critical com-ponent in the modern professional agenda. Their design, governance and infrastructure have direct impact on the lives and opportunities of their inhabitants. The more positive projects, decisions and best practices concerning landscape architec-ture that we can appreciate in our cities and sur-rounding areas, the more important it becomes to show this “Russian landscape architecture renaissance” to the delegates of the IFLA World Council and World Congress in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, respectively. Some examples include: for the second time The Landscape Forum “City park” has been organized in Moscow this spring; the Youth Landscape Forum “I Want to be a Land-scape Architect” has been successfully operating since last year; every year International scientific and practical conferences take place in Saint Petersburg; the standards for higher education in landscape architecture are progressively develop-ing and coming closer to their international coun-terparts; the school of landscape architecture is under the agenda of the Moscow professional community of landscape architects as a system of continuous extended education; and finally the project “Groves of Peace” which will be planting trees by landscape architects together with War

veterans in Moscow during the IFLA World Coun-cil for the sake of peace and friendship between peoples, will be taking place. All of these mea-sures and programs of ALAROS and its member regional organizations can be seen as supporting the IFLA-2015 events in the country.


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Last but not least, this year we are celebrating the anniversary of ALAROS’s permanent President Taisia Wolftrub. Everyone who knows Taisia un-derstands how important her role is to Landscape Architecture in Russia. Every task that she tackles is an example of what landscape architecture is all about and how professional landscape architects should think and do things at all times.

It has to be mentioned that this division of ALAROS activities into separate events is quite artificial. As Ernest Hemingway quoted, John Donne in his outstanding novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”. As landscape architects and managers dealing with landscape and natural systems we have to understand how everything in our lives is interconnected and interrelated. We try to live our ALAROS life not in separate isolated events and tasks but as a continuous life-flow, creat-ing objects of beauty and wishing to make the world better. This is easy and natural when Taisia Wolftrub leads this process!

The World Urban Forum (WUF)

Desiree Martinez

The World Urban Forum (WUF) is a non-legislative technical forum convened by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), host-ed in a different city every two years, to examine the most pressing issues facing the world today in the area of human settlements. These issues in-clude: rapid urbanization and its impact on cities, community, economy, climate change and policy. It is the World’s Premier Conference on Cities.


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The Forum gathers a wide range of experts from every walk of life. Participants at the Forum include, but are not limited to, national, regional and local governments, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, professionals, research institutions and academies, professionals, private sector, development finance institutions, foundations, media and United Nations organiza-tions and other international agencies.

The WUF promotes the strong participation of Habitat Agenda partners and relevant international programs, funds and agencies. This ensures their inclusion in the identification of new issues, the shar-ing of lessons learned and the exchange of best practices and good policies.

The WUF7 in Medellín Colombia, at the venue, Plaza Mayor took place from April 5-11 and a record 22,000 people attended.

IFLA participated actively in the following meetings and presentations with relevance for the relation-ship of IFLA with UN-Habitat and with partners UIA and ISOCARP:

- Habitat Professional Forum Meeting- Meeting of the World Urban Campaign- Organizational meeting for the project: “the Age of the City”- HPF- Dialogues

Restoration of The Kalang River, Singapore


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Through this article I would like to share my brief contribution at the HPF-Dialogues:

I have the honor to chair the International Federation of Landscape Architects, IFLA, which is the body representing the profession of Landscape Architecture, all over the World with 70 member National As-sociations organized into 4 regions and also member of the HPF.

I want to talk about the city we have, the city we need and want and how landscape architecture is al-ready contributing to this paradigm shift.

The cities we have now are not responding to our needs. If we regard the, so called, metha-cities, collapse is imminent. Climate Change, the energy crisis, lack of environmental quality, pollution and disease are just some of the many things that are threatening urban living. These threats make it so that we cannot imagine a purely urban society. However, more than 80% of people live in urban environments, being sus-tained by only 20% heroic agricultural producers and nature-conservationists .The city, as we understand it now is NOT sustainable and will NOT be able to meet people´s needs in the middle and long term.

Cities have been invading rural and natural areas, growing over hills and valleys, sucking clean water and absorbing clean air from their surroundings to expel pollution, waste and dirt!

The Konkuey Landscape Initiative


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IFLA Newsletter Issue 110 MaY 2014

Technology may help, but it is not enough to solve all our urban issues.

We need to promote the inverse phenomenon, the reinvasion of nature into the city. We need to come back to earth and include productive activities within urban environments. The city itself must be able to provide needed environmental services in order to have clean air and drinking water, solve public health problems due to pollution, face climate change, provide spaces to gather and strengthen the social net-work. We must plan spaces which can buffer natural disasters and provide refuge to people in danger. Ev-erything must be interwoven into our cities! We need to understand the continuum between urban, rural and natural landscapes. To ensure resilience, we need multifunctional landscapes!

Landscape architects are already working on this new paradigm. I brought you 2 examples. The first one is from Singapore; the restoration of the Kalang river. This was an initiative of the Government of Singapore focusing on water management, which on one hand allowed a reduced water import from Malaysia, but also solved problems like water pollution and floods. The considerations taken in this rethinking of water management include reduction of runoff, fostering infiltration into small and medium sized green spaces all over the city basin and generating multifunctional landscapes along the river which not only retain runoff water, but also foster community, culture and biodiversity and have become new heritage for the people living there.

The Konkuey Landscape Initiative


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Additionally, we have the “roots up” example developed by the Konkuey Landscape Initiative together with the inhabitants of Kibera, one of the biggest slums in Africa, located in Nairobi.

Through intense work with the community, ecologi-cal problems could be faced and solved. This proj-ect also gave new economic opportunities to the people, opportunities for recreation that fostered identity and strengthened the social network. It raised people’s self-esteem and made them happy.

Being aware of the meaning, the importance and the strength of the concept “landscape” within the process of defining a new urban paradigm, IFLA has supported an initiative from the Assistant Director General for Culture of UNESCO to achieve an Inter-national Landscape Convention, which has turned out to be a medium to long term project.

Seeking a new strategy from the roots, IFLA has been fostering through its members the comple-tion of National Landscape Charters and Regional Landscape Initiatives. This strategy has been espe-cially successful in Latin America, where 12 coun-tries already completed their charters and signed the Latin American Landscape Initiative (LALI), last year here in Medellín.

The LALI is a declaration of fundamental ethical principles to promote the recognition, valuation, protection, management and sustainable planning of Latin American landscapes. It aims to do this by adopting agreements (laws-accords-decrees-regu-lation) that recognize local, regional and national diversity and value, both tangible and intangible, of landscape, as well as the principles and processes to safeguard it.

The LALI has already promoted strong landscape awareness which you can witness here in Medellín. In some countries, legal frameworks are already be-ing developed for landscape protection.

In a continuum of urban, rural and natural land-scape, we the people are part of landscape, in fact, we are all the landscape!

IFLA Asia Pacific CongressApril 23, 2014

Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia ILAM

The IFLA 2014 Asia Pacific Congress took place in Pullman Kuching, Sarawak from April 28-30, 2014. IFLA 2014 was jointly organized by the Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia (ILAM) under the auspices of the International Federation of Land-scape Architects (IFLA) Asia Pacific and was sup-ported by Sarawak State Government, Sarawak Convention Bureau and Sarawak State Tourism.

Gala Night Reception

IFLA APR Awards for Landscpe Architecture


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The IFLA 2014 Asia Pacific Congress was themed “A Greener Tomorrow”, and was looking to achieve more sustainable and quality living environments through the perspective of landscape architecture. About 450 participants, including Ministers and representatives from the private sector, academia, media and civil society, attended the IFLA2014 Asia Pacific Congress. The participants of the IFLA 2014 Asia Pacific Congress hailed from 11 countries including Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Ma-laysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and the USA.

The prime keynote speaker was Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, an ILAM Honorary Member and Malaysia Former Prime Minister. He spoke on Malaysia: A Greener Tomorrow” IFLA 2014 showcased some of the best sustainable technology and research taking into consideration natural and cultural contexts.

In order to impart knowledge one young landscape architects, IFLA 2014 organized an international student charrette. It was a 3-day intense workshop that allowed the students to learn through real

Gala Night Reception

IFLA APR Awards for Landscpe Architecture

IFLA APR Council Meeting, right and left

Handing over of the flag to the next host, Indonesia


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experience of the Sarawak ethnic group at the Sarawak Cultural Village. 150 Students from across the globe participated in the charrette. ILAM has also organized the Malaysia Landscape Architecture Awards 2013 on April 29, 2014 in con-junction with the IFLA 2014 Asia Pacific Congress and World landscape architecture Month celebra-tion. This award’s 9 categories are as follows (1) Student Design Awards (2) Landscape Research Awards (3) Landscape Construction Awards (4) Landscape Innovation Awards (5) Landscape Analysis & Study Awards (6) Landscape Design Awards (7) Green City Awards (8) Property Developer Awards and (9) Project of The Year Award. Seizing the opportunity to visit the rich biodiversity of Sarawak, there were technical tours offered to participants to Kubah National Park, the Sarawak Biodiversity Center, Matang, Semenggoh, Gunung Gading, the Sarawak Cultural Village and the Kuching Urban Heritage Walk. www.ifla2014.asia

Student Charrette


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The Functional Rearrangement of IFLA

Ana LuengoPresident IFLA EUROPE

The functional rearrangement that IFLA is under-going is the focus of everyone’s attention. This comes as no surprise as this may be the most pro-found change that the International Federation has undertaken since its foundation.

Nevertheless, without undermining this fact, we must not forget that other regions’ Federations such as Europe are also in need of reformulation. Twenty five years have gone by since IFLA’s cre-ation, and this year when we celebrate our Silver Jubilee there is much to be proud of and much to meditate on.

In April 1989, ten professional landscape archi-tects from all over Europe meet in Vilvoorde (Belgium) and decided to create the European Foundation for Landscape Architecture. It was a group of people who had witnessed in 1948, the creation of the International Federation of Land-scape Architects, and who believed that our way of perceiving and understanding the world –de-rived from our profession- could contribute to its development.

Since that date, IFLA Europe has continued to grow. Each year we have grown in number, so that now we are comprised of 34 national associa-tions, members and affiliates. Such a willingness to unite backs up the Federation’s work through-out the years. This is the result of the conscien-tious and generous work of not only the members of the Executive Committees which have steered the Federation during this time, but of all the members that have actively helped in its organi-zation.

Paradoxically though, this increase in national associations hides a decrease in individual mem-bers’ numbers. The reason for this seems obvi-

ous to many. The economic crisis which Europe is undergoing makes membership unaffordable to many landscape architects. My personal opin-ion is far more critical. Undoubtedly members are having a hard time, but if they really consid-ered their fee to their National Association as an investment in their future, they would continue giving us their support. If they are unable to do so, we must strive to understand the cause and simultaneously strengthen our structures.

Furthermore, and borrowing the concept from Gilles Clement, we are not only suffering an eco-nomic crisis but rather an econological one (both economic and ecological) whose planetary re-percussion is without precedent in the history of our civilization. This turning point in our historical evolution and the one which we are bound to live through provides an overwhelming opportunity for our Federation if we are able to reformulate its initial value into a new dynamic.

The European Landscape Convention has made plain what all of us already knew; the rich com-plexity of the landscape mosaic which charac-terizes all of our nations. This multiculturalism is understood as a striving for biodiversity that in its own time and not in contradiction, defines our common identity. With this in mind, there is a lot yet to be done in our own countries with regard to our National Associations, optimizing the network between them as a means to transfer knowledge, solidarity and mutual understanding.

Throughout millennia our “Old World” has been a source for these values, helping to establish a model for countries all over the globe. However at the same time we have managed to create and export a highly unsustainable lifestyle. The European crisis we have spoken of before seems a nimiety, even an affront to the economic and social reality that other regions of the world perpetually live in. The fact that we are part of a structure with a world-wide scope (IFLA) allows for multiple possibilities to define our vocation as well as our own way of seeing the future as land-scape architects.


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My personal belief is that it is in this scenario of change where we must elaborate our vision of the future. The crisis we speak of so much is nothing else than the visible symptom of the end of an economic model. The new global system which will emerge in the next handful of years will be vi-tally transcendent for us and future generations. Today, all of the members of this Federation are part of a world undergoing a deep transforma-tion. We must be confident that our professional skills will enable us to elaborate a new ideal and have society trust us in this challenge.

I do not know if reading Darwin too much has made me believe in biological determinism or even “federative” determinism, with regards to our associations. However it seems logical that precisely in the years that all the IFLA documents at the René Pechère Archives in Brussels are being filed and ordered, we are starting a new pathway. It is basically like driving ahead while keeping an eye in the rear view mirror!

This is basically why IFLA Europe is rejoicing this year. Thanks to the unceasing work of all our members in all National Associations, in work-ing groups, or simply dealing with their profes-sional work in an exemplary fashion, we have the privilege to celebrate IFLA Europe’s Silver Jubi-lee. Its aim is to show the rich complexity of the landscape mosaic characterizing our work, which deals with nature and culture, and considers man and society the focus of its beliefs. We invite you to join us, so as to establish the foundations for the constant and dynamic change that our Fed-eration is in need of.

2014 IFLA Europe Silver Jubilee

IFLA Europe

Twenty-five years ago, ten European professional landscape architects met in Vilvoorde (Belgium) to create the European Foundation for Landscape Architecture (EFLA). They were inspired by the international experience they had witnessed, in

1948 with the creation of the International Fed-eration of Landscape Architects (IFLA), and be-lieved that our way of perceiving and understand-ing the world –derived from our profession- could contribute to its development.

The European Foundation for Landscape Archi-tecture has since then grown up and changed in many different ways. One of the changes being its name which from “European Foundation for Landscape Architecture” (EFLA) moved to “Euro-pean Federation for Landscape Architecture” and finally to “IFLA Europe”. This followed a “Coming Together” agreement between IFLA and EFLA turning the organization into the European region of the International Federation of Landscape Architects.

Today, we celebrate the IFLA Europe Silver Ju-bilee as recognition of landscape architects’ unceasing work. There is a rich complexity in the landscape mosaic characterizing their work, which deals with nature and culture, and consid-ers man and society the focus of their beliefs. IFLA EUROPE VISIONEstablish the importance of all matters relating to landscape and landscape architecture as the physical, socio-economic, cultural, visual, concep-tual and spatial context of our European commu-nities. IFLA EUROPE MISSION Our holistic vision demands we establish support and promote the landscape architectural profes-sion across Europe, contributing to international discourse, shaping and disseminating European initiatives, facilitating the exchange of informa-tion, whilst promoting excellence in professional practice, education and research culminating in a culturally rich, diverse and sustainable Europe.


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Professor Sun Xiao Xiang Winner of The 2014 IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award

Prof. PhD LIU Xiaoming

Professor Sun Xiao Xiang is the most influential and pioneering landscape architect and educa-tor in China. He is a world renowned scholar and landscape architect combining theory, practice, art, landscape planning and design successfully. He is the first holder of the “Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture Lifetime Achievement

Award” (2011) and the recipient of the “IFLA President’s Certificate of Appreciation” (2010).

Professor Sun became an individual IFLA member in 1983. He was the only member from China for more than two decades, until the Chinese Society of Landscape Architects (CHSLA) joined IFLA in 2005. Since 1981, he has continued to introduce the philosophy, aesthetics and education of Chi-nese garden design to international audiences. He was invited multiple times as a keynote or invited speaker at the IFLA World Congresses and Conferences of 1984, 1985, 1995 and 1998, at the National Conference of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (Cityscape’ 85) in 1985 and at the World Conference on Education of Land-scape Planning, hosted by the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University in 1986. It was there that his paper “THE AESTHETICS AND EDUCA-TION OF LANDSCAPE PLANNING IN CHINA” was selected as top model for education and prac-tice. He was invited by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and the Garden History Society on an Australia national lecture tour in 5 states and 12 cities to present his paper “THE CITY SHOULD BE RICH WITH THE PLEASURES OF WILD NATURE”. Professor Sun graduated in 1946 with a Bachelor degree in Agriculture in Landscape Design from the Zhejiang University, China. After further study

1954, Sun Xiao Xiang Hand Drawing - The Birdview of Hua Gang Guan Yu Park


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in Architectural Design, he embarked on a career as a teacher and landscape architect. As the first teacher of Chinese modern landscape architec-ture, he is the founder of the Chinese landscape architecture discipline. His book “Garden Art and Landscape Design”, considered a unique and clas-sical textbook, published by the Beijing Forestry University was used by all of the departments of landscape architecture of the universities in China from 1962 to 1992. The book was republished by the China Architecture and Building Press in 2011 and was in its third printing in 2013. As an au-thor, academic and researcher, Professor Sun has published more than 40 Chinese and international papers and his literature has deeply influenced several generations.

Professor Sun has educated a large number of students for nearly seven decades since 1956, as a professor and as the head of landscape planning and garden design at the Beijing Forestry Uni-versity. From 1989 to 1990 he was an appointed visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, U.S.A., where he received the honor of Harvard’s RED TIE AWARD. In 1985 he was appointed as a visiting scholar at the Curtin University of Technology, Perth in Western Australia, when he was the 1985 recipient of the prestigious “HAYDN WILLIAMS FELLOWSHIP”. This annual award is granted to internationally

distinguished scholars (one each year) who are at the highest level in their chosen field. To date, Professor Sun is the only one who has received this honor in the field of Landscape Architecture. In addition, as a distinguished scholar, he has lec-tured in 30 other foreign universities, including 15 in the U.S. (University of Pennsylvania, University of California Berkeley, University of Virginia and Ohio State University among others) and 15 in Australia (University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Queensland and University of New South Wales among others). In 1950, as the first practicing professional landscape architect in China, a member of The Hangzhou Municipal Construction Committee and as the leader of the “West Lake Landscape Development Group”, Professor Sun undertook the master planning of the Hangzhou West Lake Area (4000 ha.) and set the stage for a new be-ginning for modern Chinese landscape architec-ture. As part of the west lake area master plan in 1951-1954, he designed Hua Guang Guan Yu Park, his maiden work in garden design and the first park of new China. His concept of combining inheritance and innovation, to blend classic and modern, eastern and western styles, and to blend natural and cultural landscape flawlessly togeth-er, has created a precedent and led to the forma-tion of the artistic style of west lake modern land-

Fish Viewing Pond - Hua Gang Guan Yu Park Fish Viewing Veranda - Hua Gang Guan Yu Park


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scape architecture. In 2011, a commemorative book on the park “The Light of Garden Design” was made by the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Gardens and Cultural Relics. In 2013, a Forum on Professor Sun Xiao Xiang’s Gardening Art named “In Honor of the Great Master” was held in Hang-zhou, together with the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Hua Guang Guan Yu Park.

Professor Sun is one of the most prolific land-scape architects ever, both in terms of his schol-arly work and design work. For more than 60 years, he has travelled throughout China and has made great contributions to the protection

and improvement of human habitat through his work. Only with an abundance of professional knowledge can a landscape architect design large botanical gardens. Professor Sun has designed seven of them in China, from the cold north to the tropical south in different climates, including: Master Planning of Jingdong Subtropical Botani-cal Garden, 875 ha. Yunnan (2012-13); Master Planning of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 900 ha., Yunnan (2004-06); Master Planning of Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Park, 588 ha, Shenzhen (1983); Planning and Design of The Ten Thousand Stones Botanical Park, 226 ha. Fujian (1962);

Tropical Brilliant Flowers Garden -Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden

Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden


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Planning and Design of The Huanan Botanical Garden, 333 ha. Guangzhou (1959); Master Plan-ning and Design of Beijing Botanical Garden, 533 ha. Beijing, (1956-1962) and Master Planning of the Hangzhou Botanical Garden, 200 ha. Hang-zhou (1952-54). Professor Sun’s botanical gardens are designed depending on the joined knowledge of plant ecology, plant synecology, plant cultiva-tion and plant taxonomy. They are the combina-tion of vegetative landscape design, architectural art and sculpture art. They also merge space ar-rangement, landscape sequence, color design and music composition.

Professor Sun’s fundamental knowledge is pro-found. He is a poet, a painter, a botanist, a horti-culturist, an architect, an ecologist and of course a landscape planner. He consistently reminds his students of the importance of possessing knowl-edge in all of these areas, in order to become an outstanding landscape architect. At the Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture, Professor Sun is praised as one of the educa-tors and landscape architects who have played a significant role in the Modern History of Chinese

Landscape Architecture. His manuscript of the book “Garden Art and Landscape Design” 1986; the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden and Design special issue of the Landscape Archi-tecture journal, his Chinese water color painting “Yellow Mountain” and his “Chinese Seal Carving Design Collection” are collected and on display at the museum. Over the years, Professor Sun has held numerous painting exhibitions and painting demonstrations, including one at the World Con-ference on Education of Landscape Planning at Harvard University, in the cities of the Australian lecture tour and at all the foreign universities he has held lectures.

Professor Sun is currently the Chief Landscape Architect and Honorary Dean of the Landscape Architecture Institute at the Beijing Forestry University and the Chief Landscape Architect and Consultant for the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden at the Yunnan Province Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was the Vice President of the Chinese Society of Landscape Architects from 1993 to 1999.

2012 Site Investigation for the Jingdong Subtropical Botanical Garden 2013 Sun Xiao Xiang


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Landscape And Urban Planning: A Systemic Approach

Raquel Tardin

This text is a summary of the recently published article: Tardin, Raquel. “Landscape and Urban Planning: A Systemic Approach”. In: Amado, Miguel (Ed.). Urban Planning: Practices, Chal-lenges and Benefits. New York: Nova Publishers, 2014, pp. 33-48

(Open Access: https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=49739).

This article aims to present landscape and urban planning as systemic tools for renewed urban intervention, offering possibilities for a physical-spatial restructuring of urban landscapes and for a better quality of life. The current proposal con-siders the landscape both as a system and as an active part of the whole urban planning process. In this process, the recognition and analysis of the relationships between various landscape systems, including urban, biophysical, and socio-cultural, along with social participation, play an important role and might work as the basis for creating sys-temic planning guidelines focused on the pro-posal of a system of open spaces as a structuring element of urban occupation.

The development of cities has, in general, fol-lowed an extended pattern, with a wide occupa-tion of territory. This pattern usually follows the logic of road connections and other new ways of growth, which do not always pay due attention to the available landscape resources, and thus often generate great imbalances in the urban landscape between the development/protection of open and occupied spaces and the needs of the people who live in it. It can be observed that the urban growth of many cities around the world, especially in recent decades, has been facing serious problems with regard to extensive urban occupation of the territory, which often results in settlements and roadways without cohesive plans of develop-

ment, and open spaces widely segmented by the urban occupation mainly as protected land or land expecting new occupation, apart from socio-cultural disruptions and other factors.

In this context, urban landscapes tend to be seen as fragmented with regard to some of their most significant systems, namely their urban, biophysi-cal, and socio-cultural systems.

Current urban planning guidelines, focused on ex-tensive urban occupation, may play an important role in allowing and promoting such occupation and fragmentation of urban landscapes.

However, this fact also suggests that urban plan-ning guidelines may play a key role in reversing this picture, that is, in restructuring it and in preserving the important systems of urban land-scapes through urban interventions based on values that respect the integrity of the systems as a whole in the process of planning open and occupied spaces in an interrelated way, while pay-ing attention to open spaces as possible struc-turing elements of the urban occupation. These urban interventions can also enhance and provide alternative actions, contributing to the perfor-mance of landscape dynamics and the preserva-tion of resources in accordance with collective demands.

In this way, the various landscape systems in-cluding the urban, biophysical and socio-cultural systems are understood as the basis for the understanding and analysis of the landscape, together with social participation as a collective designation from the citizens about the direc-tion and destination of their landscape. Such an understanding makes possible fruitful interfaces regarding open and occupied spaces, with reper-cussions on the determination of urban planning guidelines and their implementation, focused on restructuring the urban landscape through the proposal of a system of open spaces as a structur-ing element of urban occupation (Tardin, 2013).


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It is believed that the interface between social participation and arguments from the technical analysis of landscape systems can generate valu-able information to establish a dialogue between different social agents. This can form the basis for the planning of a system of open spaces as a possibility of renewing urban planning guidelines, in which nature and culture can be understood from a synergistic relationship in the process of continuous construction of the landscape.

In this sense, there is clearly a need to better understand the complexity of landscapes and the rescue of resources because such an understand-ing may provide an opportunity to generate new guidelines for urban planning and consequent renewed urban interventions on the related terri-tory. Thus, acting on the territory according to its landscape systems, and especially open spaces, might serve as a key to “reading” and “interpret-ing” it, and for creating concrete intervention proposals for the delimitation of land use/occupa-tion and activities with the intention of creating more balanced cities (Tardin, 2013).

In this way, urban planning based on landscape systems might act in the opposite direction of current urban planning tendencies focused on extensive urban occupation. First, it would iden-tify the resources from open and occupied spaces along with collective demands, and then focus on how one can work to preserve and to create a system of open spaces while also conducting the urban occupation and fulfilling its needs accord-ing to the collective demands, available resourc-es, elements, and processes of open spaces. This would require planning by thinking first of what should not be occupied and why, and second of what should be occupied, why, and how, accord-ing to the elements and processes of the open space system and people’s intentions. While such a procedure might create some technical argu-ments in the decision-making process in plan-ning, at the same time it would help to influence urban development toward a more balanced approach.

In Memorium: Vincent J. BellafioreFASLA, FCELA, IFLA

Darwina Neal

Vincent Bellafiore, distinguished edu-cator and national and international champion of the profession of land-scape architecture, passed away on Fri-day, May 2, 2014, at Piatt County, Illinois Nursing Home after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Vince was born

March 3, 1943, in Brooklyn, NY. He received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (1966) and Master of Landscape Architecture (1968) from the University of Georgia, then began his professional career working as a landscape architect on all major projects for Sasaki, Dawson, and Demay in Watertown, MA.

Following that, he dedicated his life to teach-ing design from international and cross-cultural perspectives, starting as a professor in the School of Environmental Design (SED) at the University of Georgia from 1970-1980, managing the UGA Cortona Studies Abroad Program during the summers of 1974, 1976 and 1977. While teaching there, Bellafiore received the 1979 Outstanding Educator Award of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA). Later he received the 1998 SED Distinguished Alumni Medal.

Professor Bellafiore next became Chair of the Landscape Architecture Program at Virginia Poly-technic Institute and State University (1981-1985), Blacksburg, VA, where from 1983-85 he served as a consultant to King Faisal University in Dam-


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man, Saudi Arabia and developed a curriculum for their Master of Landscape Architecture pro-gram, formulated a research agenda and created a resource center. His international involvement led him to become ASLA Senior Delegate to the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) from 1979-1983. He also served as CELA President (1982-83).

Vince became the head of the Landscape Archi-tecture Department at the University of Illinois, at Champaign-Urbana from 1985 to 2000. He pushed for the establishment of a joint doctoral program in landscape architecture and architec-ture. He also thought it was essential to incor-porate international, social and environmental influences into the scope of the academic envi-ronment, so he launched the first India design studio at the Buddhist site of Sarnath in collabo-ration with the National Park Service. In 1999, he began a major research initiative in the Taj Mahal National Park, India, which led to the creation of the Taj Mahal Cultural Heritage District Devel-opment Plan: Agra India, that received an ASLA Merit Award in analysis and planning.

Throughout Professor Bellafiore’s teaching ca-reer, he was a staunch advocate for the landscape architecture profession through both ASLA and IFLA. Among other ASLA chapter and national activities, he served on various awards juries, was a member of the ASLA Council on Education, Accreditation Board and Roster of Visiting Evalu-ators, chaired the 1984 ASLA Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, was Conference Program Co-Chair for the ASLA-hosted 1988 IFLA World Congress, Boston, and was elected IFLA Vice President of the Western (now Americas) Region from 1982-88. During that time, he organized and coordinat-ed an IFLA Western Region Conference on Land-scape Architecture Education in Latin America in 1986, and was on the 1987 IFLA International Stu-dent Design Awards Jury, Paris, France. He was elected a Fellow of ASLA in 1989 for distinguished service to the profession, and then was ASLA Vice President of Education and Professional Development from 1989 to 1991. In 1993 he was

awarded the ASLA President’s Medal for unselfish and devoted service to ASLA at the national level. His contributions to and leadership of the society throughout his distinguished career included his advocacy of recruiting women and underrepre-sented minorities into the profession of landscape architecture and his educational leadership at the University of Illinois. Professor Bellafiore became President of ASLA from 1995 to 1996.

Having stepped down from the position of de-partment head, Vince served as Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Il-linois from 2000 to 2007. His interest in diverse perspectives eventually led him to the challenges of designing for the visually impaired. He taught studios in which students created gardens that emphasized cardinal directions, scent, sound and touch. He became a Professor Emeritus of the University of Illinois in 2007. He was honored as a Fellow of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture in 2012.

Vince is survived by his wife, Alma Glenn Womack Bellafiore, whom he married on Dec. 17, 1966, in Atlanta, GA, and who was his loving companion and supporter throughout both his career and his long illness. Also surviving are one son, Charles Bellafiore of Brooklyn, NY, one daughter, Lisa Brumfield of Jupiter, FL, and two granddaughters, Morgan Smith and Libby Brumfield, who were the light of his life. He is also survived by his two sisters and many nieces and nephews.

Vince will be missed by not only his family, but also his many friends and colleagues throughout both the US and the world. Whatever he tackled, he did a superb job – efficiently and profession-ally, with grace, fairness and a good sense of hu-mor. Memories of him, his accomplishments and his thoughtful kindnesses will live on in the hearts and minds of those who knew and respected him; his colleagues with whom he taught and those with whom he worked in ASLA and IFLA, as well as the many students that he taught – leaving a living legacy of his accomplishments and those whose lives he touched. AS IFLA Past President


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Arno Schmid wrote: “We will remember and re-spect Vince as an energetic, congenial person who worked hard to improve mutual understanding and good-will amongst the landscape architects of the world, and to pass on his own enthusiasm for our profession to his students at the University of Illinois.”

A celebration of Vince’s life will be held on June 29, 2014 at 2pm at Temple Buell Atrium on the University of Illinois campus.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be sent via check noted “Bellafiore Fellowship” to:

Vincent Bellafiore Endowed FellowshipUniversity of Illinois FoundationP.O. Box 3429Champaign, IL 61826-3429

Contributions may also be given on line at their web page:

www.landarch.edu .

Condolences may be sent to:Alma Bellafiore711 South Elm BoulevardChampaign, IL [email protected]

Editor’s Note

Dear IFLA News readers:

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for allowing me to act as editor of IFLA News during the past 4 years spanning the term of IFLA President, Desiree Martinez. It was a wonder-ful experience where I was able to correspond with many extraordinary and interesting people (mostly landscape architects) who will continue to motivate me to excel in the field and push the limits via their ambitious and inspiring projects, innovative research and true dedication to our profession. I would also like to give special thanks to Desiree Martinez who asked me to be the editor of this publication, not only for giving me this opportunity but for her sincere devotion to our landscape.

Sincerely,

Shirah Cahill

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