Lecturers

Gilles Clément

 

Lecturer 2, 5 and 11

Gills Clement is a Horticultural engineer, landscape architect, author, gardener, and teacher at the « Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Paysage » in Versailles (ENSP). In additional to his activity as a creator of parks, gardens , public and private areas, he pursues his theoretical and practical investigations in three directions : The Garden in Motion,  a concept derived from experiments in his own garden in the Creuse, and applied to public areas in France and abroad beginning in 1983. The initial description of this work was published in 1991 with four successive reprints by Sens and Tonka in Paris. The idea was put into practice for the first time in a public space in 1986 at the André Citroën Park in Paris, inaugurated in 1999. Numerous projects based on this principle of management have since been carried out, in particular at the “Lycée Agriculturel Jules Rieffel” in Saint Herblain (Loire Atlantique) between 2004 and 2009. The Planetary Garden, a political project, based on ecological humanism, first brought to public attention by a novel/essay Thomas et le Voyageur, published by Albin Michel in 1996, and by a major exhibit in the “Grande Halle de la Villette” in Paris (1999/2000) as well as by a certain number of studies: -the Planetary Garden of Shanghai -the Landscape Charter of Vassivière (Limousin) and other work in progress. The Third -Landscape -a concept developed in the course of a landscape appraisal in the Limousin, defined as a « hesitant fragment of the Planetary Garden », applied to all neglected (friche) or  left  behind spaces (délaissés) which he considers as the principal breeding area for biological diversity.

 

Colleen Mercer-Clarke

 

Lecturer 11

She has been announced as the recipient of the 2019 International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) President’s Award at the World Congress in Oslo, Norway. Colleen's work on planning and design for a changing world has a special focus on adaptive planning in coastal communities. Colleen has over 30 years’ experience in the private sector as a senior environmental manager working on a wide array of initiatives throughout Eastern and Atlantic Canada and internationally. Trained as both a marine ecologist (B.Sc, M.Sc., Memorial 1976) and landscape architect (M.L.A., Guelph 1987), her early work focused on environmental planning, assessment and management, including coastal, watershed and municipal planning, site design and conservation of special places. Colleen has contributed to regional national and international development of coastal policies, programs and institutions that advance the principles of precaution, stewardship and sustainability. She is an experienced team leader, skilled in the facilitation of complex meetings.  Colleen left consulting in 2005, completing aDoctorate in interdisciplinary studies (Dalhousie 2010) as well as Post Doctoral studies (Memorial 2011) in coastal governance, coastal health and impending climate change. Since 2009, she has participated in research-community-government teams working across Canada and in the Caribbean on coastal preparedness for environmental changes associated with shifting climate and extreme weather events. Colleen leads the CSLA Task Force on Adaptation and Chairs the IFLA Working Group on Climate Change, continuing her commitment to the sustainability of nearshore environments and communities. 

 

Xavier Matilla

 

Lecturer 11

Architect-urban planner by the ETSAV-UPC, born in Terrassa in 1975. Chief Architect of the Barcelona City Council. His professional and academic career has focused on urban planning and is characterized by his commitment to move towards healthier and fairer cities and territories. He has developed his professional career in different prestigious law firms. In 2013 he founded with the architect Mónica Beguer the office «Territorios XLM», dedicated to strategic territorial planning, urban projects and public space projects. He is an associate professor in the Department of Urbanism and Spatial Planning (DUOT) of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia UPC_BarcelonaTECH and professor of the “Metropolis Master in Metropolitan and Urban Studies of the IERMB and UAB. He is the author of various publications on urban planning and public space design. Between 2010 and 2015 he was secretary of the Association of Urban Architects of Catalonia and councillor of the Terrassa City Council from 2015 to 2019.

 

 

Maguelonne Déjeant-Pons

 

Lecturer 11

Head Landscape, Environment, Major Hazards Division, Executive Secretary Council of Europe Landscape Convention, Council of Europe. She has been a lawyer and lecturer at the University of Law (Montpellier) and at the Institute of Political Sciences (Strasbourg). Since 1987 she has worked at the Council of Europe as an administrator at the European Court of Human Rights; Administrator of the Environment and Local Authorities Department; Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats; Senior Administrator and Head of the Environment and Sustainable Development Division; Secretariat of the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy; Responsible for the European Diploma of Protected Areas; Editor of Futuropa magazine: for a new vision of landscape and territory; Executive Secretary of the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional and Regional Planning; then Secretary of the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape of the Council of Europe. She has published various articles and books on territorial development, the protection of coastal and marine areas.

 

Martha Schwartz

Lecturer 11

Landscape architect and artist with a major interest in urban projects, creating public realm spaces that engage with people, and build community through intelligent, focused, yet unexpected ideas-based design. Her background is in both fine arts and landscape architecture and is a Professor In Practice at The Harvard Graduate School of Design where she has taught since 1992. Her mission is to explore the relationship between landscape, art and culture and challenge traditional concepts of landscape design; find opportunities where landscape design solutions can enhance the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of a place and raise them to a level of fine art; and make landscape design critical to the sustainability of our surroundings. Martha has over 29 years of experience as a landscape architect and artist collaborating with a variety of world-renowned architects on a diverse portfolio of projects. She holds a Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of Ulster, and is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Cooper- Hewitt Museum National Design Award for her body of work in Landscape Architecture, an honorary fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects, several design awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, and visiting residencies at Radcliffe College and the American Academy in Rome of which she is a Fellow. She has lectured both nationally and internationally about the landscape with her work featuring widely in publications as well as gallery exhibitions.

Xiong, Li

 

Lecturer 9 and 11 

Li Xiong, Vice-President of Beijing Forestry University, Professor, PhD tutor, who is the Member of the China Committee of Experts on Landscape Architecture of the Ministry of Housing and Construction; Convenor of the China Landscape Architecture Discipline Review Group of the Degree Committee of the State Council; Secretary-General of the China Steering Committee for Postgraduate Education Degree of the National Landscape Architecture. He guided students to won important competitions at home and abroad, such as IFLA Asia-Pacific University Student Landscape Design Award, Japan Garden Society Award. He also has won the first prize of China Landscape Architecture And Landscape Society scientific and technological progress, the Asia Pacific Gold Award of the International Federation of Landscape Architecture, published 3 books, published more than 200 academic papers.

 

Richard Sennet 

Lecturer 11

Richard Sennet is Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Professor of Humanities at the New York University. He is the author of some of the most stirring and penetrating essays of our time, taking on such subjects as the current decisive changes occurring in our workplaces, within the family and among social classes. His essay The corrosion of character (W.W. Northon & Co, 1999) won the European Sociology Award and worldwide acclaim. He has also won the Amalfia and Ebert awards for sociology. Sennett is also known for his studies on social connections in urban environments and the affects on urban life on today’s world. On this topic are the books Flesh and stone. The body and the city in Western civilization (Faber & Faber, 1994) and The uses of disorder. Personal identity and city life (Faber & Faber, 1996). The last years he has researched on the impact of capitalism in contemporary life and culture and, on this topic, he has published The Culture of the New Capitalism (Yale University Press, 2006), The Crafstman (Yale University Press, 2009) and Together. The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation (Yale University Press, 2012), amongst others.

Antoni Falcon

Lecturer 2 

Master gardener and specialist technician for the School of Gardening and Landscape Nicolau M. Rubió i Tudurí, diploma at the École Technique Horticole d'Orleans, diploma at the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage de Versailles, and a diploma in Edaphology and Phytogenetics from the University of Barcelona. Master in Management Function in Local Administrations and in Senior Management of Business by the Higher School of Business Administration and Management (ESADE).

Ramon Torra

Ponent 1 

Born in Barcelona, 1955 ETSAB-trained architect. He is Director of Public Space Services of the Council of Barcelona Municipalities and a member of the Technical Team of the Barcelona Metropolitan Territorial Planning Commission. From 1982 to 1992 he was Director of the Territorial Area of Granollers Town Council. He drafted the General Plan of Granollers and various planning and project designs for public space.

 

 

 
Carme Ribas

Lecturer 1  

She is an architect, graduated from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) in 1980. In 1985 she obtained a Diploma from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Landscape Architecture. She has been a professor of Architectural Projects Design at ETSAB since 1987. She has also taught in the Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture at the UPC. She began her carreer as an architect of the Barcelona City Council's Elements and Urban Projects Service, during the period 1981 to 1986, carrying out several projects in the public space. Since 1985 she has been sharing professional activity with Pere Joan Ravetllat Mira, with whom she has carried out several projects, both in the field of housing, as well as in the area of facilities or public space.