The aim of this conference is to reposition the relationships between city and landscape, as reflected in the practice and academia of various disciplines. To this end, we seek to revisit the academic discourse concerning Landscape Urbanism, and to engage with subsequent ‘isms’ as well as looking beyond, in order to enrich and broaden the urban discourse.
This conference is to be held from 19-21 October 2016 at SLU’s Alnarp campus in Malmö, Sweden, and it addresses academics and practitioners alike, aiming to reposition the relationships between city and landscape as reflected in the practice and academia of various disciplines. We have invited keynote speakers from the realm of both practice and academia, and we equally wish for an audience consisting of both. To scholars we offer the well-known format of paper sessions (participants present a paper during 20 minutes and get feedback from peers during 10), for practitioners, we have adapted this format to project sessions, inviting for critical discussion of design and planning projects (participants present a project instead of a paper). Anyone interested in sharing his/her project, inspired by landscape urbanism, is most welcome to send us an abstract on one A4 page, consisting of a short project outline and images, until 15 March 2016 to abstract.beyond-ism@slu.se

Aim and objectives

The aim of this conference is to reposition the relationships between city and landscape, as reflected in the practice and academia of various disciplines. To this end, we seek to revisit the academic discourse concerning Landscape Urbanism, and to engage with subsequent ‘isms’ as well as looking beyond, in order to enrich and broaden the urban discourse.

This international cross-disciplinary conference, organised by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), aims to contribute new and alternative formulations of the relationship between landscape and urbanism by reassessing Landscape Urbanism. The time is ripe to dig deeper into the concerns motivating the cascade of ‘isms’ that have proliferated over the last decade: landscape urbanism, ecological urbanism, infrastructural urbanism, process urbanism, biourbanism, etc. To advance a theoretically sound and practically relevant discourse – rather than launch yet another superficially modified urbanism – we invite participants to take stock of Landscape Urbanism and its closely related theories to identify their strengths, weaknesses and potentials.

The conference will bring together advocates and critics of Landscape Urbanism, as well as scholars whose research complements its ongoing discourse. We look forward to welcoming participants from around the world; we are inviting academics and reflective practitioners from disciplines such as landscape architecture, urban and landscape planning and design, architecture, cultural geography, cultural studies, as well as subject areas in the arts and humanities.

Hosted by a landscape architectural institution the conference proposes to discuss Landscape Urbanism from a landscape perspective, re-engaging landscape as a “lens” to understand and develop its theory and practice. In an attempt to tackle the complex ecological challenges that our contemporary built environments face under conditions of global change, some strands of Landscape Urbanism have tended to overemphasize scientific and technical solutions, neglecting aesthetic, cultural, social and political dimensions. The conference aims to address that oversight, to identify reductionist tendencies and to understand the motives behind them, seeking to contribute to alternative concepts.

Conference themes

We invite papers and projects that contribute to historical reflection, theoretical sharpening, and practical applications across three major themes, one wildcard session and one practice-meets-academia-session:

• Ecology as panacea?
• The aesthetics as pejorative?
• Contextual bias/ enriched by context?
• Wildcards!
• Practice meets academia!

For further information on the themes, please click here, or download the full call text here .

Sessions

There will be two types of sessions: paper sessions for themes 1 through 4, and project sessions for theme 5.

Paper sessions will allow each presenter 20 minutes to present his or her research. This will be followed by a moderated general discussion of 10 minutes.

Project sessions invite practitioners to present their built or drawn work (contemporary or historical) and design critics to share their interpretations of such work. 20 minutes’ presentations will be followed by a moderated general discussion of 10 minutes.

Submission guidelines

There is an open call for papers and projects for conference sessions 1 to 5. Submissions are welcome from researchers, design critics, and reflective practitioners.

Please submit your abstract (400-600 words for paper sessions, and/or maximum one A4-page with images and supporting text for projects) before 15 March 2016, by sending it to:  abstract.beyond-ism@slu.se.

Please identify with which themes you feel your submission is most appropriately allied.  Submissions for each type will go through a review process.

Accepted abstracts will be published on-line and printed for the conference.

All authors of accepted abstracts will be offered to publish their papers in conference proceedings on-line.

A selection of papers will be reviewed, edited and published in a volume after the conference.

More information on the attached call, section ‘practice meets academia’, and on the conference website
http://www.slu.se/conference-beyond-ism
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