Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Cervera Alonso de Medina, Marina

Mercadé Aloy, Josep

English

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ri-vista02 2021278seconda serieInternational Biennial of Landscape Architecture of Barcelona. A COVID-19 adapted 11th EditionMarina Cervera DUOT UPC – Barcelona Tech, Spainmarina.cervera@upc.eduJosep MercadéDECA UPC -Barcelona Tech, Spainjosep.mercadé@upc.eduReceived: November 2021 / Accepted: December 2021 | © 2021 Author(s). Open Access issue/article(s) edited by QULSO, distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-4.0 and published by Firenze University Press. Licence for metadata: CC0 1.0 DOI: 10.36253/rv-12442 - www.fupress.net/index.php/ri-vista/Cervera, Mercadé279After the rescheduling due to the global pandemi-cs, the 11th edition of the International Biennial of Landscape Architecture of Barcelona took place the last week of September 2021 in its first virtu-al edition. The event had been delayed by one year to preserve the conviviality of life events in the ex-traordinary setting of the venue in the Palau de la Música Arc Deco building. Nevertheless, the fifth wave hit Spain forced the organisation team to morph the Biennial into a new format to adapt to the online world.The 11th International Biennial of Landscape Archi-tecture of Barcelona was organised by the Associa-tion of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) and the Poly-technic University of Catalonia (UPC Barcelona Tech) and had the institutional support of the Interna-tional Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). On the backstage of the event, the team of curators of the Biennial challenged the previous two full-day structures to pursue a new product for a new digi-tal audience built on the know-how of the past Bi-ennials. All the aforementioned entities supported this metamorphosis and agreed to embrace an on-line free event to raise the profession’s profile and share a global virtual meeting point.The objective was to concentrate in one week a se-ries of lectures, streamed life that would bring to-gether colleagues from around the globe for two or three hours, to listen and share thoughts around a symposium targeting the latest and best achieve-ments in Landscape Architecture. Therefore, the traction of the call for the two prizes (profession-al and academics) hosted by the Biennial that had been launched before the pandemics was vital.On the one hand, the Biennale symposium had al-ways been the meeting point and dissemination hall for the finalists to the Rosa Barba Prize, the professional award. The call for the 11th edition of the Prize had gathered an incredible selection of projects, cast in 2020 by an international team of prestigious jurors such as Esteban Leon (head of the program for the elaboration of resilience pro-files of the UN-Habitat cities); Cristina Castel-branco (landscape architect and doctor in Histo-ry of Art of Gardens at the University of Lisbon); James Hayter (landscape architect and urban plan-ner from Harvard University), Julie Bargmann (the architect behind regenerative and collaborative landscapes) and Kongjian Yu (landscape architect, urban planner with a PhD from Harvard University) and President to the Jury. The eleven finalists of the Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize for this edition have been:• Medellín River Parks (Colombia), by Sebastian Monsalve Gomez + Juan David Hoyos Tabordari-vista02 2021280seconda serie• Transformation of Yang Shupe Thermal Power Plant, Shanghai (China), by Original Design Stu-dio/TJAD• Ribeirinho Oriente Park, Lisboa (Portugal), by F|C - Arquitectura Paisagista• Schelde Quays in South Sint-Andries (Belgium), by PROAP - Estudos e Projectos de Arquitectura Paisagista Lda• International Geodesign collaboration, London (UK), by Carl Steinitz for IGC core group and the current 140 university participants.• Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York (USA), by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. – Landscape Ar-chitect• Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park (Tailand), by LANDPROCESS• Girona’s Shores (Spain), de EMF- Estudi Martí Franch• La Mexicana Park (Mexic), by Grupo de Diseño Ur-bano (GDU) + Victor Márquez (VMA)• Central Park, Valencia (Spain), by Gustafson Por-ter + Bowman• The tropics and the built landscape Urban Center of Medellin Colombia, by AEUThe Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize is one of the greatest honours landscape projects can receive, for its international prestige and significant economic reward of 15,000 €. It has been awarded biannually since 2001 by independent juries com-posed ad hoc in each edition and is promoted by the non-for-profit organisation as the Biennial is. The purpose is to recognise the best practices in the pro-fession by showcasing landscape architecture proj-ects built five years before the symposium date that are setting new trends, methodologies or ro-bust professional approaches. On the other hand, beyond the finalists’ time to present their Rosa Barba project, the sympo-sium has always had reflected on the profession through a tagline. A title or tagline is launched bi-annually as an in-tellectual guide of the edition. On this occasion, it was phrased as Climate change, again: City and Na-ture. Accordingly, eight experts were invited to ar-ticulate how the profession should shift towards a new paradigm to conciliate nature in the urban en-vironments to mitigate and adapt to the New Cli-mate Regime at all scales, from global to Europe-an to a more local scope and intervention. The glob-al trends were anticipated by Martha Schwartz (Landscape architect, urban planner, climate ac-tivist and professor at Harvard University Gradu-ate School of Design), Colleen Mercer Clarke (Land-scape architect and coastal ecologist), Li Xiong (Pro-fessor and Vice President of Beijing Forestry Uni-versity) and Gilles Clément (gardener and profes-sor at the National Superior School of the Country of Versailles). The European scale was covered by Karin Helms (President of IFLA Europe and profes-sor at the Oslo School of Architecture) and Mague-lonne Déjeant-Pons (Executive Secretary of the Eu-ropean Landscape Convention of the Council of Eu-rope). In contrast, the regional scale was introduced by Xavier Matilla (Chief Architect of the Barcelona City Council) and Ramon Torra (Architect and man-ager of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona).In parallel to the Rosa Barba Prize, the Biennale or-ganises an academic prize. Since 2003, we have launched a call to universities worldwide educating our future professionals and required them to send the five best projects of their most mature students. The International Prize of the Landscape Architec-ture Schools and Universities is endowed with 1.500 € by Fundació Banc de Sabadell and enables a stu-dent from the winning University to come to Barcelo-na, and you’re the local Master Program in Landscape Architecture. Beyond the eight lecturers of the the-oretical day framed by the motto and the eleven fi-nalists to the Prize, another set of lecturers was in-cluded taking advantage of the online format. An in-ternational jury is biannually invited to visit the ma-Cervera, Mercadé281terials sent by each school, five projects from each school from around ninety international schools. This year’s edition of the Prize had the privilege to be constituted by Tim Baird (Chair of the Depart-ment of Landscape Architecture at Cornell Universi-ty), Brigitte Colin (UNESCO programme specialist in charge of intersectoral urban projects), Lisa Mack-enzie (Senior Lecturer in The Edinburgh School of Architecture), Philippe Poullaouec-Gonidec (Prize winner of Trudeau Research Foundation in Cana-da) and Félix Solaguren, (Director of the Barcelo-na School of Architecture, UPC).  The jurors select-ed nine schools as finalists, and this fall, for the very first time, the school were invited to join the sym-posium by presenting their projects and educational methodologies (five students projects per school). The finalist universities schools for the Interna-tional Award for Landscape Schools - Bank Sabadell Foundation were:• Leibniz University Hannover (Germany).•  University of Technology Sydney (Australia).• Harvard University Graduate School of Design (USA).• City College of New York (USA).• School of Architecture, Politecnico di Milano (Italy).• Amsterdam Academy of Architecture (the Nether-lands).• TUDelft (the Netherlands).• Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China). The list of finalist schools for the 11th edition has been outstanding, with exciting and experimental projects reflecting on the pandemics and new forms of online teaching adapted during those times.All in all, keeping in mind the overall objective to con-centrate in one week a wide range of free, streamed life lectures, the event was successful to organise the finalists of the Rosa Barba Prize, the represen-tatives of the University opting to the International School Prize and the eight keynote lecturers from the theoretical day. The listed three blocks of con-tent, ranging from professional to theoretical and academic profiles, immersed the audience into a broad-spectrum perception of the best practices of Landscape Architecture as a discipline championing for better practices and triggering sectoral dissemi-nation. After four days following the lectures closely from keynotes and designers, the winners’ reveal was served as the final event to the whole Biennial and closure. The Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh, won the Ro-sa Barba International Landscape Prize 2021 project, whilst the Medellín River Parks, by Sebastian Mon-salve Gomez and Juan David Hoyos Taborda, has re-ceived a Mention from the Jury.  The City College of New York won the main Prize, but the International Jury awarded two mentions for the School of Archi-tecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering Politecnico di Milano and the University of Technol-ogy Sydney. The announcement was made during the ceremony award of the 1st October, in a hybrid session streamed from the Palau de la Música ac-cessible to share online1. Note1 <www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c3IllfgHv4> (12/21).

International Biennial of Landscape Architecture of Barcelona. A COVID-19 adapted 11th Edition

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International Biennial of Landscape Architecture of Barcelona. A COVID-19 adapted 11th Edition

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