The 150th birthday of perennial gardener Karl Foerster brought the bdla regional groups' public relations spokespersons to Potsdam on May 3, 2024.

"Surrounded" by the special exhibition "Karl Foerster. New Paths - New Gardens", curated by Heidi Howcroft, bdla landscape architect, they worked their way through the agenda. The new spokespersons Helge Baake, bdla Hamburg, and Till Müller-Petschke, bdla Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland, were welcomed. The debate began with the advisory board resolutions on public relations work.

The plans to create a family of LA prizes - the German Landscape Architecture Prize, regional landscape architecture prizes and competitions for young talent - were welcomed, as was the bdla Berlin/Brandenburg's commitment to the WIA Festival 2025. Young professionals on Future Day 2024 was only half successful. While no offers from landscape architects could be placed for boys in 2023 (they are not underrepresented in the profession), girls were left out in 2024 (the proportion of women in the profession is over 60%).

Nevertheless, planning offices should open their doors to girls and boys again in 2025. Further recruitment of young talent should take place via social media, student internships, lectures at schools and participation in regional initiatives; the participation of children and young people is also an opportunity to show what landscape architecture is.

The list of criteria for the funding of regional group public relations projects was adapted to current requirements; no need was seen to change the application/approval procedure. However, those present considered it necessary to bring the bdla's imagefilm "Landscape Architecture - Planning for People and the Environment", published in January 2024, out of the proverbial closet and present it promptly in all of the bdla's communication channels. The 59th meeting will take place online on November 15, 2024.

Source: bdla association magazine "landschaftsarchitekt:innen" 1/2024

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