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25 September 2007 Lincoln academics take landscape love to Russia

From left: Dr Maria Ignatieva, Dr Jacky Bowring, and Dr Shelley Egoz with their Conference proceedings.

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Date25th September 2007Lincoln University

Three Christchurch landscape architects with extensive international experience have helped organise a global conference in the old Russian capital of St Petersburg, as a contribution to the emerging landscape architecture profession in the former Soviet state.

The idea for the conference came from Russian-born Lincoln University senior lecturer Dr Maria Ignatieva and a fellow academic in St Petersburg, Dr Irina Melnichuk.

Dr Ignatieva enlisted the support of Lincoln University Landscape Architecture Group colleagues Dr Jacky Bowring and Dr Shelley Egoz and Russia's first international landscape architecture conference was born.

Dr Bowring's international background includes being a finalist in a worldwide design competition for a 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon in Washington and Dr Egoz has taught landscape architecture in the United States of America and been in practice in her native Israel.

The conference, titled Globalisation and Landscape Architecture drew an international participation of 130 from 20 different countries and was attended by the President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, New Zealander Dr Diane Menzies, also of Christchurch.

“Landscape architecture is one of the most popular professions in Russia today,” says Dr Ignatieva, “and the introduction of a market economy has provided a lot of opportunities, from the construction of private villas for the rich to designing new pedestrian urban zones.

“Globalisation has touched all spheres of Russian society but there is now a danger that it is causing a loss of national identity.”

The impact of globalisation became the central theme of the St Petersburg conference and presenters gave a number of perspectives on the effect of globalisation on contemporary and historic landscapes.

Ecologists at the conference expressed concern about the impact of globalisation on biodiversity and voiced worries about the increasing homogeneity of the urban environment.

The centre of St Petersburg has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Russian landscape architects are concerned that an overseas company has recently won a design competition that could see skyscrapers positioned next to the historical heart of the city that was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than 200 years.

The conference was held in the St Petersburg Forest Technical Academy, which in 1933 became the first school in the old USSR to offer a programme in landscape architecture. It is also Dr Ignatieva’s alma mater were she completed bachelor and masters degrees.

Funding support for the event came from the City Government of St Petersburg and Russia’s first professional landscape architecture journal Landscape Architecture.Design. Lincoln University, the St Petersburg State Forest Technical Academy, the International Federation of Landscape Architects and the Association of Landscape Architects of the Community of Independent States also gave support.

Ian Collins, Communications Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand

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25 September 2007 Lincoln academics take landscape love to Russia