This year’s Landscape Festival in Bergamo, Italy, is all about current crises and the levers that landscape architecture can pull to minimize their negative effects. It starts on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 with a Garden Masterclass led by plant sociologist Nigel Dunnet.

The 14th Landscape Festival is taking place this year in Bergamo, around 50 kilometers from Milan.This year’s motto is “Facing the crisis”. Under the direction of the non-profit organization Arketipos, the festival is addressing the planet’s most current and urgent problems: Pandemics, wars and environmental crises. The Landscape Festival aims to show how landscape design can serve as a tool to mitigate the effects of such crises and support the resurgence of society. It also aims to convey a landscape culture based on the assumption that the concept of a “landscape” is a dynamic one that arises from the interaction between humans and nature.

This September, not only world-renowned experts and landscape architects will come together, but also writers, photographers, scientists and botanists. The aim is to create an awareness of sustainable development, biodiversity and the protection of resources while ensuring stable economic growth.A highlight of the festival program is the “Green Square”, designed by Catherine Mosbach, one of the world’s most sought-after landscape architects. In the Green Square, mineral and plant matter merge and apparent opposites suddenly become mutually dependent. For example, the cracks in the dried-out soil provide a valuable habitat that can be used by the seeds of pioneer plants as a space for germination.

The main part of the Landscape Festival will take place from Friday, September 20, 9:00 a.m. to Saturday, September 21, 1:00 p.m. in Bergamo. A Garden Masterclass with Nigel Dunnett from the University of Sheffield will take place from Wednesday, September 18, in which landscape design will be taught using his FLOW process and with plenty of practical relevance. Tickets are available online and you can choose between the “Garden Masterclass”, the “International Seminar” and the “International Meeting”.

More information and tickets for the Landscape Festival 2024 in Bergamo are available here.