3-day ISOLA conference to begin on Feb 11

Hyderabad: The 14th national conference of the Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA) is scheduled to be held on February 11, 12 and 13 by the Hyderabad chapter. The society is a 19-year- old professional body of landscape architects. It has over 360 members from different States, and some across the world.

It is a member of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). Some 250 landscape architects, including members of ISOLA, along with architects, planners, designers, ecologists will participate in the conference. The theme is "Unbuilt landscapes", disclosed Dr Sridevi Rao, honorary national president of ISOLA.

"When mother earth is stressed for resources, the landscape architects are endowed with power to make choices that can induce some harmony into our living spaces. People are no longer looking for just aesthetics; they also equally have environmental concerns which are driving their decisions now," she added. "The conference is an annual affair to meet, discuss and learn from each other's experiences for professional excellence", Dr Rao stated.

The conference will focus on issues and approaches through a multi-disciplinary outlook of varied sciences, research and demonstrations, landscape design responses to settlements and urbanisation and landscape architecture as an enabler of a symbiotic relationship between the natural and man-made realms, she added. The inaugural keynote will be delivered by Kotchakorn Voraakhom, founder-CEO at LandProcess & Porous City Network, Bangkok, a social enterprise that looks to increase urban resilience in Southeast Asia. She campaigns for more green space in cities and is a 2018 TED fellow. She has been named one of Thailand's best architects, one who is fostering social change.