The symposium Exchanges in European Landscape Design, 1945–1975 assembles a group of leading scholars from Europe and North America and asks them to examine the relations and transferences that influenced the course of landscape architecture in the postwar period. 

Presentation

The symposium Exchanges in European Landscape Design, 1945–1975 assembles a group of leading scholars from Europe and North America and asks them to examine the relations and transferences that influenced the course of landscape architecture in the postwar period. The causes and aftermath of the Second World War firmly established that life in the twentieth century was truly global, and that no nation today can exist in isolation.

In many countries the principal task facing landscape architects was the reconstruction and recovery from the deprivations resulting from the war. In other countries, providing access to green space for play and recreation, and the shift to suburban living, acquired increased prominence. Among many others the key questions for landscape architects were: How to best shape the rebuilding of cities and the form of suburban development—in particular, how to address the acute need for housing? How can landscape architecture positively affect the health and lifespans of its citizens? And in what way should old manners of garden and landscape design be superseded or discarded in favor of aesthetic ideas adopted—and adapted—from painting, sculpture, architecture, and engineering, to embody a new relationship between designed and natural environments? To these must be added the impact of international exchange through education and training, garden expositions, and professional conferences and societies such as the International Federation of Landscape Architects founded in 1948.

The symposium program comprises three sessions presenting a wide distribution of creative movements, political systems and geographic areas. Our speakers will discuss not only the internal developments regarding landscape design in their home countries, but also the influences on education and design arriving from other lands. Although a symposium of this length is unable to cover every European country, or any country in detail, it will offer a broad perspective on an important subject missing from the history of landscape architecture in Europe.

Program

Thursday 20 June 2024

13:00 – 13:30: Registration and welcome message

13:30 – 17:30: Session 1: Overview, Belgium, France, The Mediterranean  

Moderator: Marco Martella (Institut Européen des Jardins & Paysages)

• Modern Landscape Architecture: Definitions & Exchanges, Marc Treib (University of California, Berkeley)
• Of Park Systems and Minigolfs, From Athens to Anderlecht, Ursula Wieser Benedetti (CIVA, Brussels)
• Bruxelles au centre du monde: les jardins de l’Exposition universelle de 1958, Eric Hennaut (CIVA, Brussels) [in French]

Coffee break

• Postwar Housing in France: Landscapes for Living and the Evolution of a French Landscape School, Bernadette Blanchon (ENSP, Versailles) [in French] Portugal, Brazil, Italy: Caldeira Cabral, Burle Marx, Pietro Porcinai, Cristina Castel-Branco (Lisbon University)
• Discussion

17:30: Reception « verre de l’amitié »

Friday 21 June 2024

8:30: Registration

9:00 – 13:15: Session 2: Netherlands, Austria, Germany

Moderator: Iris Lauterbach (Institut Européen des Jardins & Paysages)

• Nature in the Neighborhood: Designs for Dutch Housing Landscapes, Imke van Hellemondt (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
• Green Postwar Modernism: Its Humble Beginnings in Vienna, Lilli Licka (BOKU, Vienna)

Coffee break

• Letting the Dust Settle: Postwar Housing Landscapes in East and West Germany, Sonja Dümpelmann (LMU Munich)
• Franco-German Relations in Landscape Architecture, Lars Hopstock (University of Kaiserslautern)

13:15 – 14:30: Free time for lunch

14:30 – 17:00: Session 3: Britain; Scandinavia; IFLA

Moderator: Marc Treib (University of California, Berkeley) 

• Post-war European Influences on British Landscape Architecture, Jan Woudstra (University of Sheffield)
• Northern Exchanges in Landscape Design: Denmark and Sweden, Anna Jakobsson (SLU Alnarp)
• Organizing Landscape Architects: the case of IFLA, Dorothée Imbert (The Ohio State University)
• Discussion

17:15: C losing of the Conference

17:30: Reception 

Saturday 22 June 2024

9:00 – 17:30: Visit of the Park system in Anderlecht (Brussels) and Meise Botanic

Garden (10 km from Brussels Center) - Transport by coach