Women crossing boundaries in Landscape - FOLAR and The Gardens Trust

Martha Fajardo

Speaker: Martha Fajardo

I will share a reflective talk about how my time at the University of Sheffield shaped not only my professional life, but also my vision of cities and landscapes as spaces for people and nature. For more than 35 years, our office has carried forward the lessons learned there, transforming them into projects in Colombia and across Latin America. I will also bring a more personal reflection on the role of women in landscape architecture — a perspective that, I believe, brings an essential sensitivity to our field. From a woman’s gaze, landscape design becomes a way of detecting structural inequalities and deficiencies in our public (and private) spaces, and of laying the foundations for integral transformation. It places nature and people at the very center. It nurtures everyday life. It reimagines mobility with attention to the rhythms and needs of children, women, the elderly, and the disabled. And it invites co-creation as a cornerstone of urban regeneration.

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Martha is a Colombian architect and landscape architect with a master's degree and an honorary doctor of letters (DLitt) from the University of Sheffield UK. CEO of Grupo Verde, a firm dedicated to the professional practice of landscape architecture, urbanism, and urban design.  She cofounded and was the first President of the Colombian Society of Landscape Architects (SAP). Former President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). She cofounded and chaired the Latin American Landscape Initiative (LALI. Martha is at the Board of Directors member of Nature of Cities (TNOC).