In mid-November 2025, Mumbai became the site of a rare and necessary reckoning, as over a thousand landscape architects from across the Asia-Pacific gathered to ask not how fast cities can grow, but whether the direction of that growth serves life itself. The IFLA-APR Regional Congress, organized under the theme 'Growth Paradox: Reimagining Landscapes,' placed ecological balance, cultural continuity, and community resilience at the center of a conversation that urban development has long pushed to its margins. India, with its layered histories and accelerating cities, was held up not as a caut
Global landscape architects convene in Mumbai to tackle 'Growth Paradox' at IFLA congress
In our race towards development, we often lose sight of our intended direction
Mark
Why does a conference about landscape architecture matter? It sounds like it's about parks and gardens.
Mimi
It's about who gets to decide what a city becomes. Landscape architects sit at the intersection of urban planning, ecology, and community design. They're not just planting trees—they're asking whether a city's growth serves everyone or just some people, whether it destroys ecosystems or works with them.
Mark
And the "Growth Paradox" theme—what's paradoxical about growth?
Mimi
The paradox is that we pursue economic development while losing the things that actually make life worth living: clean air, cultural identity, community spaces, ecological stability. We win the race and lose the map. The congress was asking: what if we designed growth differently from the start?
Mark
Why does India matter in this conversation?
Mimi
Because India is urbanizing at an extraordinary pace, and it has something most developed nations lost—a living connection to cultural traditions and ecological knowledge. If India can embed sustainability and cultural respect into its growth, rather than erasing them, it becomes a model for how the rest of the world might do development differently.
Mark
So this wasn't just architects talking to architects?
Mimi
No. They deliberately brought together students, manufacturers, plant nurseries, community artists, policymakers, ecologists. The idea was that landscape architecture can't be a siloed profession. It has to be a conversation between everyone who shapes or lives in cities.
Mark
What comes next after a congress like this?
Mimi
The real test is whether cities actually change how they plan. The congress ended with a commitment to cross-border collaboration across Asia-Pacific on climate and biodiversity. But commitments are easy. The hard part is whether Mumbai, and cities like it, actually start designing growth differently.
O Pulso
- Asia-Pacific cities are expanding at a pace that outstrips the capacity of ecosystems and communities to absorb the consequences, creating a paradox that planners can no longer defer.
- The congress drew more than 1,200 daily participants — delegates, students, artists, and manufacturers — signaling that the field of landscape architecture is broadening its sense of who belongs at the table.
- Speakers warned that climate change and biodiversity loss are regional emergencies that no single city or country can navigate alone, making cross-border collaboration not aspirational but urgent.
- India's ability to layer cultures, rituals, and histories into urban life was identified as a rare asset — one that could position it as a global benchmark if sustainability is woven into growth rather than sacrificed for it.
- The congress closed with a collective commitment to move beyond infrastructure-led development, calling for urban models that center ecological health, cultural inclusion, and long-term resilience.
In mid-November 2025, Mumbai became the site of a rare and necessary reckoning, as over a thousand landscape architects from across the Asia-Pacific gathered to ask not how fast cities can grow, but whether the direction of that growth serves life itself. The IFLA-APR Regional Congress, organized under the theme 'Growth Paradox: Reimagining Landscapes,' placed ecological balance, cultural continuity, and community resilience at the center of a conversation that urban development has long pushed to its margins. India, with its layered histories and accelerating cities, was held up not as a cautionary tale but as a potential model — proof that growth and rootedness need not be opposites.
When Mumbai's Jio World Convention Centre opened its doors in mid-November for the IFLA-APR Regional Congress 2025, the question at the heart of the gathering was one most cities prefer to avoid: What kind of growth do we actually want?
Organized by the Indian Society of Landscape Architects and drawing roughly 1,200 attendees each day, the two-day congress took its theme — 'Growth Paradox: Reimagining Landscapes' — as a deliberate provocation. It named the defining tension of development across the Asia-Pacific: the simultaneous hunger for economic expansion and the mounting toll that expansion takes on ecosystems, communities, and cultural memory. ISOLA president Urmila Rajadhyaksha described the event as something built from the ground up, intentionally weaving together professionals, students, plant nurseries, and community artists into a single conversation. The goal, she said, was to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals through real practice — and this gathering had made that commitment tangible.
Congress convenor Devayani Deshmukh Upasani urged participants to ask whether development was actually moving in its intended direction, and to draw on traditional knowledge — including responses to erratic rainfall — as a resource for contemporary crises. The backing of Mumbai's municipal government was itself a signal that the city was beginning to reconsider how it thought about open space.
International voices sharpened the stakes. Dutch designer Adriaan Geuze observed that India occupied a rare inflection point: unlike nations that had grown by erasing their past, India retained a distinctive capacity to layer cultures, histories, and rituals into the texture of daily life. If that capacity were integrated into urban growth, he argued, India could set a global standard for cities that are healthier and genuinely future-ready. IFLA-APR president-elect Paul Chan reinforced the call for regional solidarity, noting that climate change and biodiversity loss demanded collective action across borders.
The congress also unveiled a student-researched Nature Culture Map of Mumbai — an attempt to document the relationship between the city's natural systems and its cultural identity — alongside a broad exhibitor ecosystem reflecting the field's commercial and technical depth. What crystallized across the two days was a unified call for something more fundamental than incremental adjustment: a shift away from infrastructure-led growth toward models that place ecological balance, cultural inclusion, and urban resilience at the center. For a region urbanizing faster than almost anywhere else on earth, the message was both clear and urgent — the choice of what kind of future to build must be made now, and made together.
In mid-November, Mumbai's Jio World Convention Centre hosted a gathering that brought landscape architects from across the globe into conversation with a question that most cities avoid asking: What kind of growth do we actually want?
The IFLA-APR Regional Congress 2025, organized by the Indian Society of Landscape Architects, drew roughly 1,200 people each day across its two-day run. The theme—"Growth Paradox: Reimagining Landscapes"—was not accidental. It was a deliberate provocation, a way of naming the tension that defines development in the Asia-Pacific region: the simultaneous push for economic expansion and the mounting costs of that expansion on ecosystems, communities, and cultural continuity.
Urmila Rajadhyaksha, president of ISOLA, described the congress as something built from the ground up rather than imposed from above. The organizers had intentionally woven together delegates, students, manufacturers, plant nurseries, and community artists—every thread in the fabric of landscape architecture. "We evolved the event's structure to inclusively recognize every component that constitutes the world of landscape architecture," she said. The core mission, she explained, was to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through actual projects and practice, and this gathering had crystallized that shared commitment.
Devayani Deshmukh Upasani, the congress convenor, framed the gathering as a moment to step back and ask whether development was moving in the direction it intended. "In our race towards development, we often lose sight of our intended direction," she noted. The conversation, she emphasized, needed to blur the lines between research, teaching, and practice—and to look backward as well as forward, drawing on traditional knowledge to address contemporary crises like erratic rainfall patterns. The fact that Mumbai's municipal government had backed the event signaled a shift in how the city itself was beginning to think about its open spaces.
International voices reinforced the stakes. Adriaan Geuze, founder of the Dutch design firm West 8, observed that India stood at a rare cultural and economic inflection point. Unlike many nations that had pursued growth by erasing their past, India had a distinctive capacity to layer cultures, histories, rituals, and languages into the fabric of daily life. "If India continues to integrate sustainability and cultural richness into its urban growth, it can set a global benchmark for cities that are healthier, happier, and truly future-ready," he said. Paul Chan, the president-elect of IFLA-APR, echoed the call for regional collaboration, noting that climate change and biodiversity loss could not be addressed by individual cities or countries working in isolation.
The congress itself was structured to let participants chart their own path through expert talks, panel discussions, and exhibitions. A notable element was the IFLA Global Studio Program and the unveiling of a student-researched Nature Culture Map of Mumbai—a document that attempted to capture the relationship between the city's natural systems and its cultural identity. The exhibitor ecosystem was substantial, spanning dozens of companies across categories from platinum partners down to bronze essentials, reflecting the commercial and technical depth of the landscape architecture field.
What emerged across the two days was a unified call for something more fundamental than incremental change. The congress concluded with a commitment to move beyond infrastructure-led growth toward models that prioritized ecological balance, cultural inclusion, and urban resilience. For a region experiencing some of the world's most rapid urbanization, the message was clear: the architects and planners shaping these cities had a choice about what kind of future they were building, and that choice needed to be made now, with intention and with all stakeholders at the table.
Citações Notáveis
If India continues to integrate sustainability and cultural richness into its urban growth, it can set a global benchmark for cities that are healthier, happier, and truly future-ready.— Adriaan Geuze, Founder and Design Director, West 8 (Netherlands)
The core mission of ISOLA is to achieve the maximum possible Sustainable Development Goals in our projects, and this gathering has significantly strengthened that shared vision for a sustainable future.— Urmila Rajadhyaksha, President of ISOLA
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