European Federation for Landscape Architecture [EFLA] Regional Congress 2011 - "Mind the Gap. Landscapes for a New Era"

The future of cities is a critical issue to todays' lifestyle. Now that more than half of the world's population is urban, cities have transformations and decreasing the quality of life. Like living organisms, cities change: they grow and shrink, they flourish and decline. The aim of this congress is for academics and professionals to share knowledge about how city space is created by the intertwining of various spheres. From such interaction with city environments, gaps in urban structure and urban life will appear and by exploring and understanding them, we are better prepared to create appropriate and unique environments in our cities – quality of life/quality of living. Gaps are omnipresent, from those in our minds to those in physical space. These gaps affect us in many ways, big and small, from education to such international matters as the financial turmoil. “Mind the gap”, suggests that we must acknowledge the ‘gaps’ and also means that we must find new ways to understand the evolution of our cities and current urban conditions. The congress will take place in the undiscovered jewel of the Baltic Sea – Estonia. Geographically located in the north-eastern edge of the European Union, Estonia is very rich in natural landscapes, having almost half of its territory covered by forest. However being a small country, but the richness and diversity of its landscapes is positively surprising. The medieval capital of Tallinn has the perfect conditions to host our congress where everyone will have the opportunity to explore new landscapes and lives with a different twist.