Urban Nature Seminar

Urban Nature Seminar 8 – 9 September 2011

At University of Turku, Natural Sciences Building I and II (T5, T6)

Seminar will be run in English.

Program

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Friday, 9 September 2011

• Printable Urban Nature Programme
  

Urban Nature Lectures

Jackie Brookner

is an ecoartist, who works at the intersection of art, ecology, landscape design and community process to create water remediation/public art projects.  These projects in parks, wetlands, and rivers demonstrate how stormwater runoff and other polluted water are resources that can be reclaimed to create lush environments and multifunctional public spaces.  Often ignored infrastructure becomes an exciting focal point of urban life.  Her Biosculptures™ are vegetated water filtration systems that create destinations, foster healthier ecosystems, and raise awareness of our human dependence upon the natural systems of which we are part.  Her work provokes questions about what the being of human means today.  Brookner’s whole systems approach identifies nodal points where social, cultural, and ecological restoration meet.

The Magic of Water / Veden Taika, her recent project in Halikonlahti, Salo in collaboration with Tuula Nikulainen, consists of three floating islands in a former sewage treatment lagoon.  They provide bird habitat, improve water quality through phytoremediation and subsurface aeration, encourage biodiversity, and create an
aesthetic focal point.

Jukka-Pekka Flander

Counsellor, the Ministry of the Environment.

Eelco Hooftman

Director, MA Landscape Architect, graduated from the University of  Agriculture Wageningen, The Netherlands. Moved  to the United Kingdom in 1990 and founded G R O S S. M A X. with Bridget Baines in 1996.  GROSS.MAX. has been widely recognised for its contextual and conceptual approach with a contemporary idiom towards urban space. Their message is that landscape architecture should once again become a source of aesthetic experiment. GROSS. MAX. has been awarded the Topos Landscape Award 2006 for, according to the jury, their individual design concepts and major part in shaping the style of landscape architecture in the early 21st century.

Eelco Hooftman integrates theory and practice of landscape architecture in an extensive output of (international) projects and award winning competitions. Currently Eelco Hooftman is visiting professor at GSD Harvard and giving lectures in many countries. He is also working on the Landscape Master Plan for Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

Hanna Johansson

Researcher, curator, arthistorian and teacher, Helsinki.

Marketta Kyttä

Marketta Kyttä is is an Environmental Psychologist and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Urban and Regional Studies at Aalto University, Finland. Her research focuses on urban health and happiness, participatory-planning and the everyday aspects of place, and she leads a multidisciplinary team developing award-winning softGIS methodology.

Anto Leikola

emeritus, Helsinki University.

Patrick Quist

Patrick Quist, landscapearchitect, is frequently engaged as a lecturer and teacher in many different contexts, at universities, conferences, and works as a strategic consultant for many cities.
The main focus of the lectures is to illuminate the context and point to the importance of developing the city's public spaces as the crucial and perhaps most important bearer of the city's trademark. The lectures provide a background to our perception of time, that an increasing proportion of our consumption is immaterial, illustrates the value of brand building, will inspire new ways of looking at information and gives many ideas for new ways of thinking in terms of planning, design, and not least the importance of to distinguish between why and how. The citys soul, brand and identity is not only built of sqaure meters, kubic meters and running meters, but very much of experiences. Add more values.

Samuli Saarinen

Researcher, Environmental and City Planning Office, City of Turku. Turku National Citypark.

Peter Schantz

professor of human movement sciences at Mid Sweden University (GIH), Stockholm and have specialized in a holistic perspective on physical activity, external environment, health and sustainable development. He has been particularly interested in studying the role of nature and greenery in this respect, as well as policy implementation related to securing urban nature. He is currently advisor to WHO in their development of a health economic assessment tool for walking.

Martha Schwartz

is a landscape architect and contemporary artist. Since 1979 her work has had a profound effect on the worlds of garden design, urbanism and landscape. With her words, ´a landscape can be anything`. In her design she combines bold forms and vibrant colours with unexpected materials and plants. She is one of the world’s most recognized landscape architects.

Martha Schwartz Partners´ (MSP) has 20 years of experience designing and implementing installations, gardens, civic plazas, parks, institutional landscapes, corporate headquarters, master plans and urban regeneration projects. With offices in Europe and North America, Martha Schwartz Partners is strategically positioned to work around the globe and has to date worked on projects in over 20 countries—from Iceland to Australia, the USA to the UAE.

MSP has designed a masterplan of Barker Park on the bank of the River Aura in Turku. With this environmental art park, Turku will gain a worthy 21st century addition to the City’s already impressive list of cultural historical sights and attractions. The park construction will begin in 2012.

Victoria Thornton, Hon FRIBA

Victoria Thornton is founding director of Open-City, an independent not for profit organisation established in 1992, that champions the value of well designed places in making a successful city and the role everyone can play within it.

The organisation’s work is divided into three specific strands – advocacy, education and public engagement. Within Advocacy, Art in the Open was created as London’s independent advisor for art in the public realm. It supports the development and vision of London’s art in the public realm as the capital continues to change in the lead up to the 2012 Olympic Games and beyond. 

As well as director and curator of many high-profile exhibitions/initiatives, Victoria is currently a Board Member of the Irish Architecture Foundation, based in Dublin and in 2003 RIBA awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Victoria in recognition of her contribution to architecture and the education of future generations.

Yvonne Westerberg

occupational therapist, manager,  Ergoflora Yvonne Westerberg AB, Stockholm, Sweden. She has 25 years experience of working with gardentherapy in two wellknown healing gardens in Stockholm, Sinnenas Trädgård / The Garden of the Senses amd Haga Hälsoträdgård / Haga Healing Garden. Her workshop will be an inspiring jouney to healing forces of nature.