Speakers

The first conference that we can announce will be given by the Argentinian landscaper Amalia Robredo, an international reference in this type of landscaping, with a very important peak in South America.

He has developed his professional activity in the field of landscaping and environmental restoration, combining his work between project drafting and construction execution. Trained as an agronomist, he specialized after completing a master’s degree in landscaping. The projects in which he has participated range from public gardening, environmental restoration and private gardening to European innovation projects.

His conference will deal with the design and management of green infrastructures in urban and peri-urban areas.

From the French region of Caunes Minnervois, Imoggen and Kate will present their vision of several years in the creation and execution of naturalistic gardens and their experience obtained in the management of their experimental garden.

Graduated in Business Administration and Management from the Comillas Pontifical University / Agricultural Engineer from the Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering from the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville. After working as a landscape architect in several Andalusian architecture studios and developing part of her career in England, Rocío returns to Spain to run her own office in Seville from which she develops large-scale landscaping projects mainly in the areas of Sotogrande, Cádiz , Malaga, Seville and Madrid, also working as a local partner of international landscapers.

In her conference, she will present her perspective on naturalistic landscaping projects in the private sphere.

Joan is a biologist by training and has been the technical director of the PPB company for more than twenty years, in which he has worked on various types of gardening projects, both public and private, throughout the Balearic Islands.

During his conference, he will talk to us about how the observation of species in nature, with their adaptation mechanisms, allows us to obtain essential information for the design of a garden.

Landscape designer based in the Mediterranean and South America, he has worked in Uruguay, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan and Russia. In his gardens, his focus is the use of plants adapted to local climates, thus minimizing the use and maintenance of water, taking the local landscape as a source of inspiration.

For about 6 years he has specialized in garden design in the Mediterranean, using species adapted to drought conditions and poor soils. In this process, he has had the need to involve me in monitoring the gardens to ensure their permanence over time, dedicating part of his time to consulting and training gardeners for the management of Mediterranean naturalistic gardens.

During his conference, he will present his point of view and his experiences in a factor as important as the management and maintenance of a Mediterranean garden.

In a residential area near Freiburg, Germany, passionate gardener Frank Fischer has created a show garden for his salvia collection that provides both a habitat for insects and a place of well-being for visitors. Self-sowing of the plants and targeted weed control give the naturally designed garden a new dynamic. Drought-resistant planting in German conditions largely gets by without watering. In addition to sage and his passion for the plant world, he has an adjacent nursery with many other perennials, common and unusual grasses, chilies and self-propagating annuals.

During his lectures he will tell us about his experience of species without irrigation in the conditions of Germany.

Thomas Doxiadis, ASLA, is an internationally recognized Greek architect and landscape architect.  Born in Athens (1970), Thomas Doxiadis received his B.A. (1992), Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University (1998).  He was teaching assistant at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and has received academic awards such as the Harvard College Scholarship, Thomas T. Hoopes Prize, Rudolf Arnheim Prize, and the Penny White Award.  He returned to Greece in 1999, where he was Section Manager of the Athens Olympics Organizing Committee (1999-2003), responsible for landscape and Look of the City. Concurrently he was Advisor to the Organization for the Planning of Athens (1999-2001).  He has taught in the university (Adjunct Lecturer, University of Patras, 2003-2007, and others).  He is currently Chair of the Natural Environment council of the Greek Society for Natural and Cultural Preservation.  Thomas has written about and participated in conferences focusing on ecology, landscape, and the city.

In 1999 he founded the architecture/landscape practice Doxiadis +, who are devoted to design excellence and work to jointly satisfy the needs of people and the environment. The practice consists of architects and landscape architects, and has extensive international collaborations. Projects are often research-driven, and include design of developments, parks, marinas, residencies, resorts, urban interventions, landscape restoration, and policy.  The practice has received awards such as the 2010 Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Awards (Commendation), the first prize for the urban space in front of the new Acropolis Museum, the 2012 best private plots international competition (Honorable Mention) and the 2007 competition for the regeneration of the Square of Heroes in Eleusis (1st Mention – Acquisition).

The presentation of these technical sessions will be given by Élida de Fátima Acosta, editorial director of the magazine Verde es Vida. With a degree in Philosophy and a master’s degree in Journalism, in 2010 she took charge of this gardening magazine from the Spanish Association of Garden Centers, which she has turned into a showcase of contemporary landscaping, with special emphasis on new-style gardens, marked for naturalism in plantations, inside and outside Spain.