IFLA World Congress 2025 Exhibitor List

Charles Waldheim is a North American architect and urbanist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Waldheim’s research examines the relationships between landscape, ecology, and contemporary urbanism. On these topics, Waldheim is author, editor, or co-editor of numerous publications on these topics, including Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory (Princeton University Press) and The Landscape Urbanism Reader (Princeton Architectural Press). Waldheim developed the theory of landscape urbanism in response to the industrial economies and emergent ecologies of the American city. On this topic, he curates the Harvard GSD’s Future of the American City podcast series. Waldheim is John E. Irving Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he directs the school’s Office for Urbanization. He also serves as the Ruettgers Curator of Landscape at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Waldheim is recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome; the Visiting Scholar Research Fellowship at the Canadian Centre for Architecture; the Sanders Fellowship at the University of Michigan; and the Cullinan Chair at Rice University. He has been a visiting scholar at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany.

A graduate of the National School of Landscape Architecture in Versailles, landscape architect Jacqueline Osty established her agency in Paris in 1985, which became Atelier Jacqueline Osty & Associates (AJOA) in 2006. She taught at the National School of Nature and Landscape in Blois from 2004 to 2019. Jacqueline Osty is recognized for her work where heritage, urban, and environmental concerns are fully integrated into project design. She has developed a highly contextual and sensitive approach to sites, constantly moving between different territorial scales. She places extreme importance on anchoring projects in their locations and seeks the best match between a place and its components. Her method of operating closely with the territory, aiming to preserve its attractiveness and enhance all its identity-related, landscape, architectural, and environmental heritage, is characteristic of her work. With Atelier AJOA, Jacqueline Osty works on projects of extremely varied nature and scale: urban parks, public spaces, and vast urban sector projects. Among her numerous references, her work is notably illustrated by Saint-Pierre Park in Amiens, Bonne Park in Grenoble, the Paris Zoological Park, and Martin Luther King Park, the latest large park in Paris, a true nature haven in the Clichy Batignolles neighborhood, Paris 18th arrondissement. Her public space and promenade projects are also exemplified by Feydeau-Commerce Square in Nantes, the promenades of Reims, Bellecour Square, Jacobins Square, Bachut Space in Lyon, the boulevards of Chartres' historic center, and the seafront of Les Sables d'Olonne. In urban planning, the studio designs the Flaubert eco-district in Rouen and is currently working on the urban project of Ile de Nantes and the grand canal park along the canals in Toulouse. For this diversity of achievements, Jacqueline Osty has been awarded the Urban Planning Prize, Parks and Gardens category in 1994, and the National Landscape Grand Prize in 2005 for Saint-Pierre Park in Amiens and in 2018 for the Seine riverbank developments in Rouen (Presqu'ile Rollet). She also received the Grand Silver Medal from the Architecture Academy Foundation on June 22, 2004. She received the National Eco-district Prize for Bonne Park in 2009 and the Landscape Victory Prize in 2012 for Clichy-Batignolles Park in Paris. Finally, she received the Grand Prize for Urban Planning in 2020.

biologiste français spécialisé en botanique et mycologie, Professeur du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, auteur de « Jamais seul : Ces microbes qui construisent les plantes, les animaux et les civilisations ».

Miguel Georgieff is a DPLG landscape architect (ENSP Versailles 1999) and founding member of the COLOCO studio. The work of Atelier COLOCO focuses on understanding the dynamics of living systems in contemporary landscapes. Their projects seek evolution through participatory processes where the question of diversity meets practices and uses. COLOCO works at all scales, from gardens to large landscapes, with a commitment to the habitability of territories under the strong dynamics of climate change.

Cecil Konijnendijk has 30 years of experience studying, teaching, and advising on aspects of urban forestry and nature-based solutions. From Utrecht, The Netherlands, he co-leads the Nature Based Solutions Institute, a think tank for the evidence-based greening of cities. Cecil has held full and visiting professorships in Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, and Sweden. He has advised, national and local governments in more than 30 countries, as well as international organisations such as FAO and UNECE, on the formulation and implementation of green space and urban forestry policies and programs. He was part of the team, for example, of development urban forest master plans for the cities of Birmingham (UK) and Groningen (The Netherlands), as well as for the development of a green roof and façade strategy for Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). His books include ‘The Forest and the City: the cultural landscape of urban woodland’(2nd edition in 2018) and ‘Rethinking urban greens spaces’ (2024). In 2021 he launched a new evidence-based guideline for urban greening, the so-called 3+30+300 rule, which is now used by municipalities, regional governments, and organisations across the world. Cecil is passionate about building meaningful relationships between people and nature to create better urban places.

Rainer Stange was born and raised in Ramnes, Tønsberg, southeast of Norway. He is a landscape architect educated at NMBU Ås and in ENSP Versailles, and has worked at architectural offices in Paris and Oslo. He is the founder of the landscape- og architecture office of Bokemo in Oslo. Rainer is behind a number of large park and urban projects all over Norway. He is known to turn every project into a place with high park feeling. For 25 years he has been active with day lighting the many hidden waterways of Oslo; the stream urbanism, which he will present in Nantes. He has been vice-president and president for the Norwegian Landscape architect association for 9 years. Rainer is professor in landscape architecture at the institute of Urbanism and Landscape at the Oslo school of Architecture AHO. He has given many lectures in several countries. He is a columnist in the magazine Arkitektur and has written two books and a number of professional articles on landscape architecture. Rainer likes baroque garden art, especially the works of André Le Nôtre. Best he enjoys sitting at a sidewalk restaurant drinking champagne in Paris or swimming in freshwater in his countryside Vestfold in the summer.

Dirk Sijmons is one of the founders of H+N+S Landscape-architects where he was mostly involved in regional plans and research-by-design commissions (1990-2015). In 2002 Sijmons received the Maaskant award and in 2007 the Edgar Doncker award for his contribution to ‘Dutch Culture’. His book publications in English are = Landscape (1998), Greetings from Europe (2008 ) , Landscape and Energy (2014), Moved Movement, (2015) & Room-for-the-River (2017) In the Anthropocene site matters in four ways (2020). Sijmons was appointed first State Landscape Architect of the Netherlands (2004-2008). He held the chair of Environmental Design (2008-2011) and that of Landscape Architecture (2011-2015) at TU-Delft. He was curator of IABR—2014 themed Urban-by-Nature. Sijmons teached and lectured at many universities, PENN, Harvard, Brussels, Leuven, Paris, Aarhus, Malmö, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Sydney, and Melbourne among them. At the World Design Summit 2017 in Montreal, he received the IFLA sir Geoffrey Jellicoe award. Since 2020 he is involved in research on the implications of for the design community our Anthropocene condition and leads the yearly workshop ‘Citizenship in the Anthropocene’ at the Independent School for the City (Rotterdam).

Kongjian Yu, a farmer’s son and a Doctor of Design from Harvard, is the founding dean of Peking University's College of Architecture and Landscape. A leader in ecological urbanism and climate resilience, his "Sponge City/Sponge Planet" concept has shaped China's ecological policies and earned global recognition. He has authored over 20 books and 300 papers in landscape architecture and urbanism, and founded and serves as chief editor of Landscape Architecture Frontiers . Yu founded Turenscape, a renowned firm specializing in eco-friendly, climate-resilient design. With over 1,000 projects across 250 cities, Turenscape focuses on nature-based solutions addressing climate challenges like flood management and urban resilience. His work has received numerous awards, including 16 ASLA Excellence and Honor Awards, 9 WAF Awards, 7 AZ Awards, and Holcim Asian Pacific Award the ULI International Excellence Award. His prestigious honors include the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Prize, IFLA’s Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award, and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. He also holds honorary doctorates from Sapienza University of Rome and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences . He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016).

Jean Viard is a sociologist and associate research director at CEVIPOF-CNRS (Center for Political Research at Sciences Po). He holds a postgraduate degree in economics (Aix-en-Provence) and a doctorate in sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. His areas of specialization include social time (vacations, 35-hour workweek), as well as space (urban planning, agricultural issues) and politics As a public speaker, he regularly contributes to print and audiovisual media and also provides consulting services to businesses and local authorities He directs a collection at Éditions de l'Aube in La Tour-d'Aigues (Vaucluse), which he founded with Marion Hennebert Author of numerous works, he has notably published: "Le sacre de la terre," with Michel Marié and Bertrand Hervieu (l'Aube, January 2020) "La page blanche" (l'Aube, August 2020) "Triomphe d'une utopie" (new edition, l'Aube, May 2021) "La France telle que je la vois" (L'Aube, March 2022) "L'an Zéro du tourisme," with David Médioni (l'Aube, June 2022) "La révolution que l'on attendait est arrivée" (paperback edition, l'Aube, October 2022) "Un juste regard" (L'Aube, January 2023) "Une émeute est le langage de ceux qui ne sont pas entendus" (L'Aube, February 2024) "Pour une société du compromis," with Laurent Berger (L'Aube, April 2025) His latest book, "L'individu écologique, naissance d'une civilisation," was just published by l'Aube in October 2024.

Mechtild Rössler is an expert in cultural and natural heritage with a degree in geography from Freiburg University (Germany) and a PhD from the Faculty for Earth Sciences, University of Hamburg (Germany). She joined the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) at the Research Centre of the Museum “Cité des Sciences et de L’Industrie” (Paris, France) in 1989 and in 1990/91 was a visiting scholar at the Geography Department of the University of California at Berkeley, USA. In 1991, she started working at UNESCO (Paris) in the Division for Ecological Sciences (MAB Programme) and transferred in 1992 to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. After various positions Mechtild Rössler became the Director of the World Heritage Centre from 2015 to end of 2021. Dr Rössler has published and co-authored 13 books and more than 120 articles, including on World Heritage cultural landscapes and ‘Many voices, one vision: the early history of the World Heritage Convention’ (together with Christina Cameron, Routledge). After 30 years at UNESCO, she retired and went back to academia in 2022 as researcher (CNRS - UMR 8504 Géographie-cités) and lecturer (e.g. Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage - University of Heidelberg, ICCROM).

Graduated from the Paris Graduate School of Business and Sciences Po's Urban Planning Program, Virginie Vial has spent over 25 years leading major urban development projects with distinctive ambitions and models: Eurodisney in France, the redevelopment of Renault's industrial sites in Boulogne-Billancourt, and the transformation of Nantes Island. Since 2022, she has headed SAMOA, the public development agency overseeing Nantes Island's urban project and the expansion of cultural/creative industries. Her leadership focuses on rethinking conventional practices to decisively align projects with ecological and social transformation goal

After studying at the École d'Architecture de Bordeaux and the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage de Versailles, Sylvanie became a DPLG landscape architect in 2003. After stints at the TER agency, then working with Yves Lion, she now works daily on territorial and urban planning issues. In 2006, she and Claire Trapenard founded the D'ICI LA agency. They developed a new office in Nantes, which Sylvanie has been managing since 2015. Now an OPQU-qualified urban planner, her taste for varied scales leads her to projects involving territorial development, development and requalification of public spaces, and urban and landscape project management. Sylvanie places landscape and nature at the heart of all her projects, and develops a resilient approach that integrates the challenges of regeneration and adaptation of living organisms and uses as a key input for projects.