EKA aula A-101
Start Date:
03.04.2025
Start Time:
18:00
End Date:
03.04.2025
The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature.
The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project “Curated Biodiversity”, which experiments with ways to make urban landscaping more diverse as an environment. Therefore, the open lectures in the spring will also turn their attention to the quality of the space between buildings and, using the speakers’ words and creations, show how to make the city more biodiverse and enjoyable and how people and other species that call the city their home can live in symbiosis.
Next week, on April 3rd at 6:00 PM, Ingo Kowarik will give the next open lecture of the spring semester, “Wild Urban Nature: Challenge or Opportunity?”.
Cities have long been wrested from the wilderness, and traditional urban design often contrasts sharply with nature. Yet even highly urbanised areas can become places of wild nature, as seen in an unintended experiment in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. After 1945, many areas lay fallow, and in West Berlin, redevelopment progressed much more slowly than elsewhere. The study of urban revegetation — and its potential for quality of life and biodiversity conservation — made Berlin a cradle of modern urban ecology. The “Berlin School of Urban Ecology” uniquely integrates ecology, planning, and design. This approach, together with community-based activities, has enabled vast areas of urban wilderness to be woven into the city’s green system, despite growing land competition. The fusion of wilderness, design, and management has created distinctive green spaces that connect people with nature while supporting climate adaptation.
Ingo Kowarik studied landscape planning at TU Berlin and led the Department of Ecosystem Science/Plant Ecology for over 20 years. As Berlin’s honorary State Commissioner for Nature Conservation and Land Management, he was also involved in numerous green projects.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
Schedule of the Spring 2025 lectures:
March 27. Toposcape: Justyna Dziedziejko & Magdalena Wnęk https://toposcape.pl/
April 3. Ingo Kowarik https://www.tu.berlin/en/oekosys/about/team/ingo-kowarik
April 10. Jan van Schaik https://www.janvanschaik.com/
April 24. Taktyk https://taktyk.net/
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.