Tomorrow Landscapes – the 9th edition of the Barcelona International Biennial of Landscape Architecture – initiated a debate about the future direction of the profession. The challenges of a rapid changing world and the impacts of climate change were reflected in many presentations.
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The potential role of landscape architecture
Anuradha Mathur from the University of Pennsylvania showed explorations of new ways of investigating and designing shifting landscapes illustrated by examples of the Mississippi River and Mumbai. The potential role of landscape architecture in an age of increasing displacement and migration was revealed in Gabriella Trovato’s work. A professor of Landscape at the American University of Beirut, she has undertaken research and conducted student workshops seeking to improve living conditions in Lebanese refugee camps. The contribution of landscape architecture to the energy transition and the creation of new energy landscapes as well as the importance of access, use and property of the commons in the digital age were amongst other topics discussed.
The award winner are Hargreaves Associates
Given the theme of the biennial, the selection of finalists for the prestigious Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize was somehow surprising with a range of well-known projects and names represented. With the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park project in London by Hargreaves Associates, the jury under James Corner awarded a large scale and high profile urban landscape project. ‘A small jury for a big project and a big jury for a small project’ were the words of Georges Descombes as his team received the Public Opinion Prize for the Renaturation of the River Aire, a project, as he reflected, not about restoring the past but a play with the past and present and a new way of seeing.
The shift that the biennial has undertaken in its second international edition was visible with the range of finalists and the topics presented. Nevertheless it was the French (and Swiss French) that left a particular mark this year including presentations by Alexandre Chemetoff and video documentaries by Karin Helms and Bernadette Blanchon that portrayed moving tributes to Jaques Simon and Michel Corajoud, two landscape masters from the past with powerful messages about what Tomorrow Landscapes could and should be.
The winners of last year’s biennial.
The Architects’ Association of Catalonia (Collegi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, COAC) and the Catalan University (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-Barcelona Tech, UPC) will host the 8th International Biennial of Landscape Architecture of Barcelona from the 25th to 27th September 2014. In this context, they will present the Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize, which has an endowment of Euro 15,000.
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This year, the finalists are: Ballast Point in Birchgrave, (Australia), by Philip Coxall, McGregoor Coxall; Arqueología de Paisaje Ruta de la Amistad in México City (México), by Pedro Camarena, LAAP (Landscape Architecture Arquitectura y Paisaje); Qunli Stormwater Park in Heilongjiang (China), by Kongjian Yu, Turenscape & Peking University; Parque de Aranzadi in Navarra (Spain), by Iñaki Alday, and Margarita Jover, aldayjover architecture and landscape; Folly Forest _ A Dance Floor for 100 Trees in Manitoba (Canada), by Dietmar Straub and Anna Thurmayr, Fontaine Landscaping Inc. Cooperation; Termas Geométricas in la Región De Los Lagos (Chile), by German Del Sol, GERMÁN Del Sol Architects; Queens Plaza in New York City (USA), by Margie Ruddick, Margie Ruddick Landscape; the project Making Space in Dalston in London (United Kingdom,), by Johanna Gibbons, J&L Gibbons (Landscape Architects)+muf architecture/art; Auckland Waterfront: North Wharf Promenade and Silo Park in Auckland (New Zealand), by Perry Lethlean, TCL+WA; The High Line in New York (USA), by James Corner, James Corner Field Operations; Landscape Restoration of the Vall d’en joan Landfill Site in Barcelona, (Spain), by BATLLE I ROIG, Enric Batlle Durany, Joan Roig Duran and Teresa Galí-Izard.
The Biennial Symposium entitled “A landscape for you”, focuses on the social component for a new way of planning and designing in Landscape Architecture. It wants to deepen on public participation and spatial appropriation of landscape, considering both its processes and its materialization. Barcelona will open itself to international landscape architecture in a symposium adapted to contemporary circumstances. For three days there will be lectures, presentations of the finalists of the Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize, keynotes speakers and roundtables. As it was the case of last Biennial, Topos is the media partner and will be involved in the organization of the conference.
