GLDA Seminar 2024 – SPACE TO GROW – Tickets on Sale Now!

Tickets are on sale now for the GLDA’s 28th Annual Design Seminar entitled:
SPACE TO GROW – How our gardens and open spaces can help us achieve a liveable future.

This year the Seminar will explore the crucial role that our gardens and open spaces play in creating a sustainable and liveable future for our communities. As urbanisation intensifies, there are proposals to reduce garden sizes in newly built housing.  Our outdoor spaces have the immense potential to have a positive effect on our lives, support biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Date:     Saturday, 24th February 2024

Venue: Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport Hotel Conference Centre (click for map)
Northwood Park, Santry, Dublin D09 X9X2

Time:   Registration opens 8am.  Seminar 9am-5.30pm.

Speakers: Jo Wakelin (Landscape Designer, New Zealand), Giacomo Guzzon (Landscape Architect, UK), Ton Muller (Landscape/Planting Designer, Netherlands), Stefano Marinaz (Landscape Architect, UK); John Little (Grass Roof Company, UK); Mark Gregory (Garden Designer, UK).

Q&A Session Moderator:
Stephanie Mahon,
Editor, Gardens Illustrated.

To book your tickets click here.

Jo Wakelin is a horticulturist, plantswoman and designer from Central Otago, New Zealand, whose landscape has been featured in several books including ‘Wild – The Naturalistic Garden’ and ‘The Garden – Elements and Styles’.  Jo believes that the time has come to rethink our use of water in landscaping, and is passionate about low impact, environmentally conscious, landscape design. www.instagram.com/jo.wakelin/

Mark Gregory, a Yorkshireman and RHS Chelsea gold medal winner, is a Horticulturally trained Landscaper. He is the Managing Director of Landform Consultants Ltd, highly regarded as one of the top landscaping companies in the UK and involved with some mind-blowing schemes. Mark was voted as the ‘Most Influential Person’ within the garden and landscape industry by his peers in January 2018 and again in 2022.

Giacomo Guzzon, is a Landscape Architect and has served as a lecturer in planting design for several years at the University of Greenwich, the University of Sheffield and the KLC School of Design in London. In addition to his academic activities, he is a Senior Landscape Architect and Head of Planting Design at the international landscape architecture firm, Gillespies, in London. A renowned international speaker, he is currently pursuing a PhD in plant science in the Landscape Architecture faculty of the Technical University in Berlin. www.instagram.com/giacomo_guzzon

Ton Muller describes himself as a Landscape & Planting Designer. He is head Landscape Designer at the Municipality of Amsterdam. His work revolves around public urban landscapes that are tuned to nature. He is pioneering new habitat-based approaches to planting in public spaces and the built environment. His work brings together themes like biodiversity, city climate, water management and community building. Maintenance and succession are key elements of his planting designs. www.instagram.com/design_by_nature

Stefano Marinaz, having completed degrees in both Agronomy and Landscape Architecture in Italy, went on to obtain an MA in Landscape Architecture at the University of Greenwich in London. Ten years ago he set up Stefano Marinaz Landscape Architecture (SMLA), with offices in both London and Utrecht, managing projects all over Britain, Italy and the Netherlands. SMLA creates elegant and secluded outdoor rooms for London clients, and rural gardens designed with exceptional sensitivity to the surrounding landscape.

John Little argues against long-standing protocol within public space and horticulture. He suggests structural complexity and topography is overlooked in landscape design and is more important than plant choice for driving biodiversity. Since starting the Grass Roof Company in 1998 he has designed and built over 400 small green-roof buildings, combining deep biodiverse green-roofs with walls of breeding and hibernation space. He states that we must invest in gardeners rather than more infrastructure. After 18 years caring for the greenspace on a social housing estate (Clapton Park) in London he has written a sustainable grounds maintenance contract that does just that.