IFLA APR CONGRESS 2011
Hospitality: The Interaction with Land
19-21 January 2011
Bangkok, Thailand

The term ‘hospitality’ appears in the manifold contexts with diverse meanings. We speak of a correlation between a guest and a host, a power of guidance and exchange, and a matter of protection and survival. In all these cases, hospitality is no longer a static state, but rather both a generating condition and a driving force for transformation. Such a state is also on the verge of a dynamic process – a series of continuing interactions of which the consequences are intertwined.

The IFLA APR Congress in Bangkok seeks to reflect upon the institute’s mission by exploring the term ‘hospitality’ in relation to landscape architectural studies and practices. We invites scientists, artists, designers, planners, policy makers and developers to engage in a fluctuating range of discussion and reflection on ‘interactions with land’ in all combined aspects of environment, social, and culture.

Each day of the Congress is devoted to a different spatial area of issues. The first day deals with the urban context. Suggested topics, but not limited to, include design and public involvement of public park, art intervention, cultural conservation, urban regeneration, landscape urbanism, transit oriented development, innovative real estate development, urban ecology, etc. The second day discusses the peri-urban phenomenon as well as issues relating to rural land and its changing patterns. Example topics, but not limited to, include urban agriculture, eco-tourism, landscape ecology, eco-city, landscape and natural identity, coastal management, impact of climate change on landscape characteristic, etc.