Between 17 and 21 November 2025, the 13th International Landscape Biennial of Barcelona will take place under the motto Natural Intelligence. Since its beginnings in 1999, the Biennial has become one of the most significant international platforms for landscape architecture — a space where practice, research, and education converge.

We spoke with Marina Cervera, executive director and long-standing organiser of the Biennial, about its twenty-year evolution, its expanding role as a global meeting point, and the challenges of curating a programme that mirrors the discipline’s shifting focus — from aesthetics to systems, from design to ecology, from the human to the more-than-human.

You have been on the board and the organisational leader of the International Landscape Biennial of Barcelona since its 3rd Edition. Now we are expecting 13th. What has grown in these 10 editions, 20 years? What has changed?

I’ve been involved in the project since its 3rd edition, but in very different positions, essentially growing alongside the biennial itself. I started as a volunteer in that 3rd edition, then coordinated the 4th catalogue, moved on to coordinating the event itself, and eventually joined the scientific committee from the 7th edition onwards. For the last three editions, I’ve been part of the executive direction.

From this privileged vantage point, I’ve witnessed its evolution from a small academic event held in a university hall to a truly professional international initiative. I’d like to think I’ve contributed to this process, particularly in helping its transition from a primarily European event to an international one, and in trying to innovate with each new edition.

“We’ve seen landscape architecture mature from a discipline focused on design aesthetics to one addressing systemic challenges—climate adaptation, ecological restoration, social equity.”

What guides us in this journey is our commitment to adapting—and if possible, anticipating—the academic and professional realities of our field. As a non-profit organization, our aim has always been to contribute to the articulation of landscape architecture in society and to serve as a useful communication tool for our community. This mission has remained constant even as the scale and scope have transformed dramatically.

Over these 20 years, we’ve seen landscape architecture itself mature from a discipline focused on design aesthetics to one addressing systemic challenges—climate adaptation, ecological restoration, social equity. The biennial has both reflected and contributed to this evolution.

In terms of venue, we’ve evolved from a university hall to the Petit Palau in the Catalan Music Palace—an amazing art deco venue that hosts us in a privileged manner in the core of Barcelona’s old town. The setting itself signals our transformation into a truly international professional platform while remaining rooted in Barcelona’s cultural heritage.

Biennale works like a hub, connecting LA institutions, universities, academics, students, practitioners, leading voices … How do you keep up with the community, and organise this conglomerate into a Biennial event, what is the structure that engages all different aspects of landscape architecture profession?

The biennial functions as a hub, an umbrella event that hosts two major prizes: the Rosa Barba International Landscape Architecture Prize (professional) and the Ribas Piera Schools Prize. These prizes are always framed within a topic for collective reflection—our Motto. From the 1st edition in 1999, “Remaking Landscapes“, to the last edition’s “The Poetics of Remediation“, these mottos signpost the evolution of landscape interventions themselves.

It’s a solid structure but at the same time flexible and open to landscape architecture institutions, initiatives, and voices that want to be part of the program. This is what makes each edition unique and non-replicable.

“Meeting with the LA community—reconnecting with old colleagues and friends scattered around the world, all coinciding in Barcelona for a week—is part of the experience we consciously foster. We contribute to this through social activities as part of the “off-program” experience.”

This is where collateral events—exhibitions, pop-ups, tours—have gained tremendous weight in recent editions. These are free, open events that complement the formal program, and they’ve become essential to our identity. We aim to make Barcelona a genuine meeting point by curating interesting enough content that gives us credibility—content that brings people to the city to see, learn, update themselves on what’s new in our discipline, and also be surprised.

“We operate with multi-stakeholder governance, involving academic institutions, professional associations, and practitioners. We maintain year-round dialogue through digital platforms and strategic partnerships, ensuring the biennial isn’t just a one-week event but an ongoing conversation.”

But it’s not just about the formal program. Meeting with the LA community—reconnecting with old colleagues and friends scattered around the world, all coinciding in Barcelona for a week—is part of the experience we consciously foster. We contribute to this through social activities as part of the “off-program” experience.

Our organizational structure reflects this philosophy: we operate with multi-stakeholder governance, involving academic institutions, professional associations, and practitioners. We maintain year-round dialogue through digital platforms and strategic partnerships, ensuring the biennial isn’t just a one-week event but an ongoing conversation. The scientific committee and executive direction work to balance curatorial vision with openness to emerging voices and grassroots initiatives.

What keeps this complex ecosystem functioning is our commitment to being a platform rather than a gatekeeper—facilitating connections rather than controlling them.

Highlights for This Year’s Event?

This edition represents several significant developments, both in content and structure.

Content: Breaking Down Silos

In terms of content, we aim to consolidate the Schools Prize (Ribas Piera) as equal to the professional prize (Rosa Barba), approaching education, research, and practice as a whole—no silos. This is a major intellectual shift, and it’s showcased by the extraordinary quality of both our international juries.

For the Rosa Barba International Landscape Architecture Prize, we have assembled a jury of remarkable depth: Bruno Marques, Michel Desvigne, Laura Zampieri, Kate Orff, and Henry Crothers.

The Ribas Piera Schools Prize jury is equally distinguished: Gary Hilderbrand, Huang Wenjing, Luis Callejas, Eulàlia Gómez-Escoda, and Hayriye Esbah-Tunçay.

These juries represent a true cross-section of global landscape architecture excellence—spanning continents, approaches, and generations. Both juries have selected interesting finalists that will be presenting their projects and schools, giving a privileged insight to our audience of how projects are initiated and come to be a reality, explained by their authors. And they are jurors but also lecturers under the motto’s title, which brings together the coherence of the event. We want to stress the importance of cross-fertilization between all parts of our sector and its crucial role in raising the quality of all interventions in landscape.

The Theme: Natural Intelligence

Our leitmotiv for this edition is “Natural Intelligence“, which we’re approaching through an outstanding keynote program. James Bridle—a writer, artist, and technologist and one of the most influential voices in contemporary debates on technology and more-than-human intelligences—will be in conversation with Thomas Woltz and Divya Tolia Sha, moderated by Tim Waterman. This configuration allows us to open debate on the contemporary pressing topic of intelligences in plural: artificial, natural, communal.

Bridle’s work, including books like New Dark Age (2018) and Ways of Being (2022), explores ecology, AI, and collective intelligences. As they say: “Intelligence is not an isolated phenomenon of human brains, but an emergent property of networks—whether of neurons, of fungi, or of data.”

This dialogue between a technology philosopher and leading landscape architects from the global North and South aims to articulate philosophical knowledge into our discipline in ways that can directly inform practice. It’s about opening new perspectives on how forests, fungal networks, human communities, and artificial intelligence can inspire fresh ways of thinking and designing landscapes.

Strategic Partnership: Fira de Barcelona

On the logistics side, this year we’ve forged an alliance with Fira de Barcelona, the leading trade fair institution in Spain and one of the most prominent in Europe. They host over 270 international shows annually. We’re exploring long-term collaboration with them through their Pool Wellness Outdoor. For this edition, they’re providing us a new venue to host all collateral events and give time and space to integrate industry, publications and a plurality of voices outside the formal program.

Evolution While Preserving Tradition

The event is growing from a symposium to a community—expanding in its plurality of voices, multi-stakeholder governance, and cross-edition interactions. Many changes, yes, but without losing the old classics: the Rosa Barba and Schools Prize finalists, and the live awards ceremony that remains the emotional heart of the week.

What I’m most proud of is how we’re managing to scale up while staying true to our mission: creating a space where landscape architecture can reflect on itself, challenge itself, and imagine new futures together.