Tag Archive for: Archival Management

ConnectLAA 2st General Meeting in Nitra, Slovakia

  • Date: 5–6 September 2025
  • Venue: Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Engineering, Slovak University for Agriculture, Nitra
  • Organised by: Attila Toth and Core Group

The main goals of this meeting were to develop a shared experience and vision for the entire Action, and to organize intensive working sessions led by the WGs. In addition to workshops focused solely on specific working groups, cross-working-group sessions were held. Participants assigned themselves to on-site sessions. 

Workshop WG1: Transfer archival knowledge to support LA archive management and operation 

Participants discussed the programme for year two, focusing on how to build on the knowledge accumulated in the first year and how to contribute to the future manual dedicated to LA archives and stakeholders. The session also involved brainstorming ideas for the Manual of Good Practices and how STSMs and WSs can contribute solid data to this task. A new inventory sheet documenting existing archives and collections was also presented; this will serve as the basis for a future online map. 

Joint workshop: WG1 and WG2 

This session aimed to foster cross-group collaboration by bringing together all WG1 participants (archivists) and WG2 participants (researchers) to brainstorm potential joint activities and identify how the working groups could support one another moving forward. 

Workshop WG2: Enhance the use of LA archives for research and practice 

This workshop aimed to encourage the use of archives in landscape architecture (LA) practice for new designs and site renovations, and to promote interdisciplinary approaches with other fields. This would involve integrating landscape architecture/design history into architectural history dialogues and situating this within a broader historical context. 

Joint workshop: WG1 + WG3

This session aimed to encourage collaboration between the groups by bringing together participants from WG1 (archivists) and WG3 (educators). The participants were asked to brainstorm potential joint activities and identify ways in which the groups could support each other in the future.   

Workshop WG3: Enhance education through the use of archives 

Participants discussed the following questions in small groups: 1) Discuss trends and developments in education, and 2) Discuss the relevance of teaching with archives. How do they align with your needs and wishes? The following relevant trends were discovered: Climate change, AI, digitisation, critical thinking, lifelong learning, and transdisciplinarity. Accordingly, the relevance of teaching with archives was highlighted in terms of adaptive cases, better links, doubtful reliability, the possibility of virtual archives, providing alternative perspectives, and the need to collaborate with archivists, engineers, scientists, etc. 

 Joint workshop: WG3 + WG4 

WG4 recruited a member from WG3 to act as a communication agent, responsible for requesting information from WG3, and as a content collection manager: Sara Djordjevic. Discussions took place about how the connections between the two working groups might work (e.g. quarterly mini group meetings). The use of a Teams channel for collaboration was discussed, as well as the next deliverables and other ideas and suggestions. 

Workshop WG4: Communication and dissemination 

The main aim of the workshop was to raise awareness of archives and showcase their contents. To this end, connected exhibitions are planned. Various platforms were discussed, with Instagram being chosen as a possible medium.  

ConnectLAA 1st General Meeting in Budapest, Hungary

The main goals of this meeting were to stimulate the working process, share information about the Action and exchange experience related to landscape architecture archives, as well as to discuss the next steps for the Action and its working groups (WGs). 

The event lasted two days, and participants were actively engaged in the WG sessions. Participants also had the opportunity to attend sessions of other WGs. This helped to create an initial, broad common knowledge base within the Action. Participants were assigned to sessions on site. 

WG1 workshop: ‘Inventory existing archives’ 

The objective of the WG1 workshop was to identify and categorize landscape architecture archives and repositories based on the general criteria outlined during the first Working Group online meeting. A brainstorming session was initiated to explore methods for collecting information on best practices. Additionally, the participants started mapping different archive locations across the Action countries, which were sampled in a Google Maps application. 

WG2 workshop: ‘Enhancing the use of landscape architecture archives for research and practice’ 

This in-depth workshop focused on mapping users’ needs, experiences and expectations concerning the accessibility, operation and information of landscape architecture (LA) archives and archival repositories. Participants were asked to bring an example of archive material that they found particularly interesting and/or important for their work, in digital form.  This served as a starting point for a discussion about how archival sources influence and improve work, design, and research. At the end of the second workshop, further WG2 activities were planned, with a particular focus on identifying research gaps related to LA archives. 

WG3 workshop: ‘Enhancing Education Through the Use of Archives’ 

Exploring how archival material is used in education, including the types of courses it is used for, the learning objectives it supports, and how it is used. Participants shared their experiences of using archives in education. These insights will inform the preparation of the next two workshops in 2025, which together will provide an in-depth understanding of the current use of archives in education. This will contribute to a catalogue of teaching methods and tools and form a basis for developing other innovative educational uses. 

 WG4 workshop: ‘Communication and Dissemination’ 

This workshop focused on developing effective and targeted communication methods, forms and tools for European landscape architecture archives, from the perspectives of LA archive management and operation, and the use of LA archives for research, practice and education. Members of all working groups exchanged ideas and brainstormed what, how, and to whom should be communicated to achieve the best possible communication and outreach. We are looking for inspiring ideas, experiences and discussions.