Heads up for the Barcelona Biennial: A global reference platform for landscape architecture

by Carles Martinez-Almoyna Gual, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at VUW 

Being from Spain, and having studied and worked in Barcelona for over twenty years, I may have a bias when I say that the Barcelona International Biennial of Landscape Architecture is a very special event. This year, the Biennial will reach its thirteenth edition, and is set to run from November 17 to 21.

The Barcelona International Biennial of Landscape Architecture was conceived during the 1990s by Rosa Barba Casanovas (1948-2000), a pioneer of landscape architecture education in Spain. Rosa Barba led a team from Barcelona’s School of Architecture (ETSAB/UPC) that has built upon her legacy, expanding an event that offers practitioners, academics, and students an opportunity to exchange ideas, debate, and contribute to the development of the Landscape Architecture discipline.

The Biennial is organised by the Architects' Association of Catalonia (COAC) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Its executive director, Marina Cervera, is well known to the landscape architecture community in Aotearoa, having been a keynote speaker at the 2024 Firth NZILA Wānanga in Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington.

Initially thought of as a European event, the Biennial began to embrace its internationalization after its seventh edition, opening it up to practices and identities from around the world. A comprehensive history of the event was published in 2022 as ‘25 Years of Barcelona International Biennial of Landscape Architecture’.

The Biennial is a symposium of theoretical and practical reflections on relevant topics within our discipline. Each edition is organised under a theme that aims to facilitate thinking and discussion.

The theme also underpins a selection of implemented landscape architecture projects and landscape architecture schools. The shortlisted projects are part of the Rosa Barba International Landscape Architecture Award, while the schools are part of the Ribas Piera International Landscape Architecture School Award.

The Biennial’s programme offers exhibitions, book presentations, book fairs, site visits, seminars, industry events, and talks about the shortlisted projects and schools. The winners of both awards, decided by two prestigious international juries, are announced on the last day of the Biennial. The jurors are also part of the programme, presenting their research practice.
 
This year’s theme is ‘Natural Intelligence!?’. In an era where Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way we think and design, this theme poses a provocative question that invites us to look at our landscapes beyond the traditional dichotomy between what is natural and what is artificial.
 
This year’s edition will have the participation of some familiar names in Aotearoa’s landscape architecture community. Henry Crothers (Design Director at LandLAB and former NZILA President) and Bruno Marques (Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture at VUW and current IFLA President) will serve as jurors for the Rosa Barba award and deliver talks. 
 
Designing Therapeutic Environments, co-edited by Bruno and Jacqueline McIntosh, will be presented as part of the Book Launch Fair and Tim Waterman, who delivered a keynote speech at the 2025 Firth NZILA Wānanga in Hastings, will also participate at the Biennial as a moderator for a conversation between James Bridle, Divya Shah and Thomas Woltz.

Ribas Piera Landscape Architecture School Award

The ten finalists of the 2025 Ribas Piera Landscape Architecture School Award will present their academic work, and the competition panels will be exhibited at the ETSAB School of Architecture. In this edition, there are shortlisted two schools from Chile (Universidad Central and Universidad Católica), three from Italy (Roma Tre, Politecnico di Milano and Università di Cagliari), one from Spain (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), one from Switzerland (ETH Zurich), one from the UK (University of Greenwich), and two schools from the USA (Cornell University and University of Virginia).

Past winners include the Arctic University of Norway (2023), the City College of New York (2021), and the School of Edinburgh (2018). In 2018, Te Herenga Waka / Victoria University of Wellington was shortlisted as one of the finalists, and one of the student projects won the IFLA President’s Choice Award. In this edition, more than 80 schools from around the world have participated in the prestigious and highly contested Ribas Piera Schools Award.

Rosa Barba Landscape Architecture Award

The eight shortlisted projects for the 2025 Rosa Barba Landscape Architecture Award will be presented during the symposium to be held at the magnificent Palau de la Música Catalana.

The shortlisted projects are Urban Balcony (Xi’an, China) by Turenscape; Waterscape Park (Tushemisht, Albania) by João Nunes; Parco Della Pace (Veneto, Italy) by EMF, PAN, Zagari and IT, Grønningen Bispeparken (Copenhagen, Denmark) by SLA; The Dark Line (New Taipei City, Taiwan) by Orliac, Batlle & dA VISION; Bridgefoot Street Park (Dublin, Ireland) by DFLA; Corredor integral del piedemonte de Cali (Valle del cauca, Colombia) by Conde and Alexis; and Glenstone (Maryland, USA) by PWP and Greenspan.

In 2023 the Rosa Barba award was conceded to the Tangshan Quarry Park (Nanjing, China), designed by Z&T Studio. Other past winners of the award include the Brooklyn Bridge Park (New York, USA) in 2021, the Saxholl Crater Stairway (Snaefellsjokull, Iceland) in 2018, and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (London, UK) in 2016. In 2014, the winner was our well known Auckland Waterfront: North Wharf Promenade and Silo Park by Perry Lethlean and Wright Associates.

From my perspective, the main contribution of the Barcelona International Biennial of Landscape Architecture to our discipline is the diffusion of its outstanding catalogue of projects gathered over the last 25 years.

Through the Biennale’s website, you can access an archive with the submissions of all participants of previous editions to both the Rosa Barba Landscape Architecture Award and the Ribas Piera Schools Award.

Please, have a look. I hope that you will find its content inspirational.

Further Information

Recent coverage of the Biennial at Landezine:

Previous Biennial themes - 1999: Remaking Landscapes; 2001: Gardens in Arms; 2003: Only with Nature”; 2006: Landscape: a Product / a Production; 2008: Storm & stress; 2020: Liquid Landscape; 2012: Biennial versus Biennial; 2014: A Landscape For You; 2016: Tomorrow Landscape; 2018: Performative Nature; 2021: Climate Change Again: City and Nature; 2023: The Poetics of Remediation.

Social Media links for the Barcelona Biennial:

Biennale, Awards, #Around-the-worldStephen Olsen