About the symposium

The symposium embraces a variety of landscape perspectives, such as urban landscapes, architectural landscapes, cultural landscapes, social landscapes, ecological landscapes, as well as academic landscapes, as a rich field for knowledge production through architectural research. The definition of ‘landscape’ by the European Landscape Convention (ELC) is: ‘Landscape’ means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. Landscape thus includes buildings and architecture and their natural surroundings, as well as regions in a wider sense.

Today, more people live in urbanized than in rural areas. An effect of these new conditions is that urbanized areas become an essential part of our landscapes, where e.g. buildings and infrastructures are important elements. Urban and rural environments are interdependent on each other within systems of continuous flows of energy, materials, and waste. However, during the Anthropocene, the relationship between urban environments and their surroundings has become increasingly abstract and out of sight in everyday life. People living in cities do not always know where their food comes from, beyond the local shopping center, or what goes into their laptops, or how electricity is provided beyond the wall plug. Raising awareness about natural resources and overconsumption is an important aspect of working towards a sustainable planet. But is that enough? Rather than awareness raising, comprehensive transformative action is urgently needed.

The symposium theme is based on a holistic perspective and responds to the potential of transdisciplinary studies/collaborations between the fields of landscape architecture, architecture, urban planning and urban design. We believe that an expanded collaboration between different architectural disciplines is an important prerequisite for a transformative change, as is collaborations with engineers, ecologists and many other professions. Discussions during the symposium will thus focus on how urban and rural landscapes meet future challenges regarding e.g. energy, biodiversity, climate, living together, and the collaborative and transformative actions we need to address.

We aim to draw on the duality of life and death to evoke questions, and to make the challenges related to urban and rural landscapes appear visible. What ideas and understandings of landscapes are dying or thriving today? What actions are impairing or sustaining landscapes? Are planners, landscape architects and architects involved in sustainable life-cycles and life-supporting actions, or are we just a part of a housing and development industry, i.e. window dressing in order to hide the most negative consequences of our exploitation of natural resources?

In sum, we invite teachers, researchers and PhD-students to the 2024 NAF/NAAR Symposium to gather around the “health” status of contemporary landscapes and architecture. All forms of OB needs are just as welcome as ideas for future solutions. The symposium takes place on September 19-20, 2024, in Alnarp, Sweden. Key-note lectures will be provided and you are invited to send in your abstract referring to any of the tracks. The organizational committee reserves the right to adjust the number and the final titles of the tracks after having evaluated the abstracts.

Keynote speakers

Dr. Kjetil Fallan, Professor of Design History. The University of Oslo

Dr. Johanna Deak Sjöman, Researcher in Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecosystem Services. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences