Tag Archive for: Event

Joint WG3 Seminar: Gaps, Needs and Wishes of Using Archival Materials in Teaching

WG3 organised a joint online seminar to synthesise findings from the four Regional Workshops held between January and March 2026. During the seminar, Regional Workshop organisers reported their specific working methods and results; participants then took part in two interactive activities on the Miro platform to summarise key findings and define what constitutes “archival materials” in the context of landscape architecture education. 

Two short surveys were conducted during the seminar to understand the current state of, and interest in, involving archives in teaching. The results indicated a clear demand for improving archival literacy among teachers and researchers, as well as an increased interest in integrating archival materials into teaching practice. As no students participated in the joint seminar, their perspectives were not represented in the survey results and will be sought through other means.

 

2026 WG3 Regional Workshop Copenhagen: Archives as Learning Settings

In 2026, WG3 members organized four Regional Workshops. The overarching aim of these Regional Workshops is to initiate dialogue between teachers and students to identify their wishes and needs, and if possible, to start co-creating new methods and tools for using landscape architecture archives and archival materials in education. This co-creation process will continue into 2027. 

 “As teaching is becoming increasingly digitized, educators and students alike are fascinated by the analogue and tangible world of historical archives. Indeed, historical collections are valuable spaces for discovery, learning, inspiration, reflection, and wonder. Archival objects such as drawings, letters, photographs, and diaries can tie us closer to past experiences and help us practice long-term thinking, which is needed as we attempt to create more sustainable futures for landscapes and cities.  

Yet, far from being neutral mirrors of the past, archives are social constructs and, as such, have many gaps, too; every archive has its missing links, hidden or forgotten material, and even more absences in the sense of things that were never considered valuable and worth collecting in the first place. These archival absences reflect what feminist writer Rebecca Solnit calls ‘strategic silences’ that can restrain certain stories from being told and places from being ‘seen’ and valued. How can we address archives as valuable places for landscape architecture education while also contributing to the critical reflection about their limitations? How can landscape architecture students and educators contribute to how archivists all over Europe are currently expanding and rethinking their collections?” (quoted from the workshop flyer, prepared by Svava Riesto) 

The Regionals Workshop Copenhagen brought educators from different landscape architecture programs in Northern and Western Europe, students at the University of Copenhagen, and an archivist of a specialized collection of landscape architecture drawings at the University of Copenhagen Library, to discuss, test, and reflect on ways in which archives and education can mutually enhance each other in order to stimulate historically informed practices in landscape architecture for the future.

 

2026 WG3 Regional Workshop Lisbon: Archives in the Classroom: Barriers, Wishes, and Needs

In 2026, WG3 members organised four Regional Workshops with the overarching aim of initiating dialogue between teachers and students to identify their wishes and needs, and, where possible, to begin co-creating new methods and tools for using landscape architecture archives and archival materials in education. This co-creation process will continue into 2027. 

The Lisbon Regional Workshop brought together educators and practitioners to explore how online archives can be integrated into landscape architecture teaching. The day was structured in three phases. 

The morning opened with two archivist perspectives: Rita Fernandes (BIG) and Hanna Sorsa-Sautet (UNESCO) presented how archives work in practice — what they contain, how they are organised, and how to search them effectively. An orientation session then introduced participants to the workshop structure and content. The core of the workshop was a 90-minute hands-on task: working in pairs, participants searched real online archives on a chosen topic and drafted a teaching unit around what they found — and what they could not find. Three surveys, administered before, during, and after the session, captured layered evidence of the barrier’s educators face: incomplete digitisation and language barriers topped the list, yet 100% of participants stated they intended to use archives in future teaching. 

The workshop confirmed that the challenge is not convincing educators of the value of archives — it is giving them the practical tools to act on an intention they already hold. 

The day concluded with a group visit to the Roberto Burle Marx exhibition at the Centro Cultural de Belém — a fitting complement to the workshop’s themes of designed landscape and archives.