46th IFLA World Congress

ABAP – Brazilian Association of Landscape Architects – and IFLA – International Federation of Landscape Architects – once again bring to Brazil the great 46th IFLA WORLD CONGRESS, to be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), from October21 - 23, 2009, in conjunction with the 2nd ABAP International Congress. GOALS

• To foment the gathering of professionals from the private and public sectors, educational and research areas, promoting landscape architecture throughout the world, with the purpose of consolidating this design and planning field in Brazil;
• To enable global networking among landscape architecture professionals;
• To create an environment for business through a parallel exhibition to showcase products, services, and technological innovations.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATIONS The International Federation of Landscape Architects – IFLA - , based in Versailles, France, was founded in 1948. Its first meeting took place in Cambridge, UK. IFLA is the worldwide organization that represents all landscape architects, having as partners UNESCO/ICOMOS, ONU/HABITAT, UIA, and IUCN. As responsible for World Congresses, IFLA held its last events in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands (2008), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2007), Minneapolis, USA (2006), and Edinburgh, UK (2005). ABAP - Brazilian Association of Landscape Architects - is affiliated to IFLA since its foundation, 30 years ago. THEME AND PROGRAM The 46th IFLA WORLD CONGRESS and the 2nd ABAP INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS – themed “Green infrastructure: High-performance Landscapes” – will focus on sustainability of production processes and promotion of debate and information exchange on space and city designs. With the application of Landscape Architecture, these designs are guided by environmental preservation and social-economic benefit to the community, in addition to opportunities of aesthetic enrichment of such places. As the specific discipline of open space design, Landscape Architecture´s scope ranges from residential areas, housing developments, and parks, to renovation of entire urban areas. Besides that, Landscape Architecture can provide specialized consulting on regenerating degraded environments and formatting projects for environmental licensing in cities and natural areas. Due to the environmental crisis, there has been an increased demand for higher energy efficiency and new forms of circulation, housing, and leisure in cities. In order to achieve that, Landscape Architecture has a fundamental role in the improvement of image and safety in cities as well as the sense of self-worth of their inhabitants, having great potential to contribute to the planning of open spaces – both public and private, providing more environmental comfort, renovation of underused urban areas, recovery of brownfields, conservation and restoration of natural resources, mainly water ones, and environmental and public health services. The program includes international conferences and presentation of over 70 works in parallel rooms, allowing great information exchange among landscape architecture professionals from all over the world. Registration and call for works should be submitted through this page. Another highlight of the 46th IFLA WORLD CONGRESS and the 2nd ABAP INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS will be the great number of activities and workshops for students, in conjunction with the International Student Design Competition. Prizes will be awarded by the Han Group, IFLA, and ABAP. This international event will also feature a program of technical visitations to a number of sites in Rio de Janeiro, where the visitors will be able to contact with several native species in visually exuberant sites, such as the Botanic Garden, Tijuca Forest, Burle Marx Estate, Peninsula Park, Flamengo Park. These places will be visited under guidance of local expert professionals. The congress attendees will have the opportunity to meet technological innovations that create differential competitiveness, lowering environmental impact, such as:

• Designs and solutions that preserve the environment and are less financially and environmentally costly;
• Urban equipment with use of certified, recycled, and renewable materials,
• Reduction of energy consumption;
• Integration of natural and artificial lighting and use of reflective materials that lower energy consumption;
• Building materials that lower environmental impact, such as ­­­­­­­those that reduce water consumption, paints with lower evaporation rate of volatile organic compound (VOC) based solvents, paving, recycled materials, etc.

One of the main goals of the congress is to valorize landscape architecture design and its practitioners throughout different countries, in addition to enabling broad networking among professionals from all over the world. www.46ifla2009.com.br