Hong Kong to host the world's landscape architects as rising seas redraw Asia's coastlines
- Written by: Telegraph Magazine
The Congress will bring together landscape architects, planners and policymakers from more than 80 countries and is the first time the city has hosted the IFLA World Congress.
The theme of the Congress is "Liminal Landscapes: Shifting Boundaries of Watersheds & Coastlines" and will examine how cities can plan and design for coastlines and river systems that never stay still and increasingly in recent years, as live-showcases of the effects of climate change. The three-day Congress will combine keynote lectures, scientific panels, workshops and awards ceremonies, drawing on Hong Kong's own experience as a city built at the edge of land and sea to guide a conversation with global relevance.
Mr. Paul Chan, IFLA Asia-Pacific Region President and Immediate Past President of HKILA, said the Congress marks a turning point for the profession in the region. "For years, landscape architects have argued that the space between land and water needs proper design attention, not just engineering," he said. "This Congress puts that argument on a world stage, in a city that lives with the consequences of that boundary every day. We want delegates to leave Hong Kong with practical tools and partnerships they can take back to their own cities, and we want the wider public and business community to understand why landscape architects now sit at the centre of how Asia adapts to a changing climate."
The theme reflects a challenge every coastal city in Asia now faces. Hong Kong sits at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta, a position the Congress organisers describe as fundamentally liminal: neither fully land nor fully water, and shaped by tides, storms and human development in equal measure. The Congress will explore how landscape architects can work with, rather than against, these shifting boundaries, covering watershed management, coastal resilience, sponge cities, nature-based solutions and the cultural landscapes that form where water and settlement intersect.
Sessions across the three days include dedicated tracks on climate action, disaster risk reduction, indigenous knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals, reflecting how far the discipline has moved beyond garden design and into the frontline of climate adaptation planning.
Among more than a dozen international speakers, three stand out for the breadth of their influence on the landscape architectural field. Kate Orff, founder of SCAPE and professor at Columbia University, will deliver the Congress's opening keynote; a MacArthur Fellow and winner of the 2025 ASLA Firm Award, she has spent her career redesigning coastlines in New York and New Orleans to absorb storms rather than fight them. Stig L. Andersson, founder of the Danish studio SLA and a professor at Beijing Forestry University, brings three decades of nature-based design practice and a body of work honoured with some of Europe's top architecture prizes, including the C.F. Hansen Medal. Jungyoon Kim, associate professor in practice at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and founder of PARKKIM, will speak on landscape practice that spans Rotterdam, Seoul and Boston, offering a distinctly cross-cultural view of how cities adapt public space to a changing climate. Their sessions, alongside Peking University's Li Dihua, Amman-based designer Lara Zureikat, prominent Malaysian landscape architect Seksan Ng and more, mean the Congress will set a global agenda on climate adaptive design.
Mr. Chan said the Congress offers value well beyond the profession itself. "Anyone with a stake in how Hong Kong and the wider region grow, whether in government, business or the community, will find something," he said. "Delegates will hear from people who have already solved problems that our cities are only beginning to face, from flood resilience to biodiversity loss. Landscape architecture touches property values, public health and investment decisions as much as it touches parks and gardens, and this Congress is where those conversations happen in the open."
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About the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects
The Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects (HKILA) was founded in 1988. It is a professional body incorporated under the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects Ordinance (Cap. 1162), dedicated to raising the standard of sustainable development, landscape design and planning in Hong Kong.
About the International Federation of Landscape Architects
The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) was founded in 1948. It is the only international non-governmental organisation representing landscape architects worldwide, representing the global community of landscape architects through national associations from more than 80 countries across five regions. Its mission is to advance the landscape architecture profession and promote the sustainable management and design of both natural and built environments.
