Day after day people’s lives are affected by poor or inadequately planned development. The world is in flux: climate change, deforestation, floods, urbanization, the shifting weight of the developing world, and the rising shortage of resources are causing us to rethink the way we design places. The complexity of the modern world presents both challenges and opportunities to those who conceive and shape built and natural environments.

Using Colombia as a case study, leading landscape architect Martha Fajardo will give her unique Latin-American perspective into this global issue and outline the amazing transformations which have taken place in Bogotá, Medellin and Cartagena in relation to transport, public spaces, art and culture, education, social urbanism and social inclusion. Martha Fajardo is CEO of Grupo Verde Ltda, a firm dedicated to the professional practice of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Urbanism and Urban Design, based in Latin America.

For full details visit the MSD website .

EXHIBITION

To coincide with the lecture, an exhibition of selected projects by Grupo Verde and Martha Fajardo will be on display in the Wunderlich Gallery, Ground floor of the Architecture Building, at the University of Melbourne, 3 to 13 May 2011.