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.