On September 17th 2019 IFLA declared a climate and biodiversity emergency and called for landscape architects world wide to join together in facing these challenges. The anthropocene has made apparent the negative effects of the interaction between humanity and the planet. While nations have borders, the consequences of our collective actions and the ensuing threats facing humanity do not. 

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However, this era also sees new forms of interaction emerge; ones that transcends national, social and cultural boundaries as well as academic and institutional borders. At the same time old paradigms and barriers are being dissolved, and technological innovation and new forms of communication allows us to share information increasingly efficiently. The opportunities for collaboration have never been better, and never so direly needed. We cannot leave anyone behind. 
The theme of the 2021 IFLA World Congress, Emergent Interaction, aims to explore these new forms of collective problem solving, borderless strategies and possible networks of ideas and cooperation while at the same time keeping the issues of climate change, social inequality and biodiversity-loss at the forefront of the congress.

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How can we connect local action with global strategies? How can we facilitate interaction across national and institutional boundaries, between citizens and governments; Interaction between academic institutions and private practices, between political frameworks and planetary boundaries; between culture and nature, between the digital and the physical, between cities and ecologies? Perhaps by exploring the possibilities of such new cooperative frameworks together will allow us to mobilize our collective ingenuity and professional capabilities towards global action in order to confront the challenges facing us.

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What are the possible uses of these new modes of interaction for our profession? What new tools and applications can we expect on the theoretical, strategic and operational levels of landscape architecture? Can we learn from each other as a global network of landscape architects, urban planners, designers and professionals in the built environment, representing a wide diversity of nations, traditions, practices and cultures?

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Through a unique collaboration Kenya and Sweden wants you to collectively engage with these questions under the theme of the IFLA 2023 World Congress – Emergent Interaction.