Around the world
Guest contributor Tony Brophy has found a well of inspiration in Nantes, France. If there was one ‘elephant in the room’ at the IFLA World Congress, held in September, it was what he terms the profession’s prevailing “identity crisis”.
2025 has seen a cornucopia of awards events - here’s a wrap on the Barcelona International Landscape Biennale, the Landscape Institute Awards and World Architecture Festival - all of which took place in November.
The World Architecture Festival made its first touchdown in the USA in November - at which LandLAB, with SCAPE, gained global recognition with a win in the Future Project: Urban Design category for the exciting Te Ara Tukutuku project.
The Asia-Pacific regional chapter of the International Federation of Landscape Architects has a new president: Paul Chan, of the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects.
Similarly to the globally important Adaptation Futures conference recently held in Ōtautahi Christchurch, next week’s International Conference on Urban Health in our capital city will traverse topics that shape both urban and landscape design.
Ahead of COP30, now up and running in Brazil (regardless of notable COP-outs), the International Federation of Landscape Architects released a COP30 Position Statement titled ‘A Call to Action for COP30: Putting Landscape at the Heart of Climate Action.’
Hastings’ Waiaroha – Heretaunga Water Discovery Centre has won international acclaim this month, taking out the City Nation Place Global Award for Best Placemaking Initiative. Announced in London, the award placed Waiaroha ahead of major projects from cities such as Toronto, Stockholm, and Cleveland.
For landscape architect Craig Pocock, travelling to India to speak on the world stage of the IFLA APR Congress in Mumbai is an opportunity to champion the importance of indigenous-led design and to reconnect with the influences that have shaped his love for India.
One week before the 13th edition of the Barcelona International Landscape Biennial, LAA contributor Carles Martinez-Almoyna Gual, a Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Te Herenga Waka VUW, provides an insightful overview of what to expect.
Ōtautahi Christchurch has been overflowing with international events, including welcoming more than 2400 delegates and exhibitors to the combined 10th International Water Association ASPIRE Conference and Water New Zealand Conference and Expo.
From a pool of more than 120 nominees a National Jury convened by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) has selected more than 30 winners - as announced at this week’s gala evening during DARK, the AILA’s Festival of Landscape Architecture.
In his lifetime - tragically ended on 23 September 2025 - world-renowned Chinese landscape architect and educator Kongjian Yu exemplified the role that landscape architects can play in climate adaptation. The combination of his many professional works, personal connections, influence and legacy as an originator of the ‘sponge city’ concept will be, and are already, enduring ones.
The countdown to the Adaptation Futures conference from 13 to 16 October at the Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre in Ōtautahi Christchurch is almost over. It will have all the elements of a UN-level gathering and will put issues and expertise from Aotearoa New Zealand on a world-level stage.
Ralph Johns takes us on the trail of two friends cycling into the past; reconnecting with people and places, professional and personal memories, the future and the present. All encompassed by the spanning of four decades and one hundred landscape architecture projects.
This year’s IFLA Sir Graham Jellicoe Award recipient is Swiss landscape architect and educator Günther Vogt. The imprint he has been making on the profession is insightful and influential.
With Bruno Marques as its serving President and Tuia Pito Ora NZILA President Ralph Johns in attendance, the 61st IFLA World Congress, as so many before it, has a strong and active participation from Aotearoa New Zealand.
Earlier this year Robin Simpson ventured into the Kakadu National Park for the first time to experience a vast landscape unlike any other - returning with a deep appreciation of the Country, its people, ecosystems and habitat.
Across in Australia, the New South Wales Government is attaching the direction of its housing policy to a newly launched Housing Pattern Book. It’s a bold move that built environment practitioners here, still reeling from the ‘knock out’ blow given to Kāinga Ora, are bound to take an interest in.
As a significant prelude to its National Awards in October, the 2025 edition of the AILA Chapter programme concluded in June with a total of 35 Awards of Excellence across 13 instructive Categories.
Amongst the 15 National Awards presented by the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects in 2025 the work done by Janet Rosenberg & Studio (JRS) on the design of Kìwekì Point in Ottawa flew highest.