bread spring 2024 - Michelle Delk and Thomas Kissling

The May lecture in the Kra/jiná series titled DoHromady/Together will feature New York landscape architect Michelle Delk from the Snøhetta studio and Swiss landscape architect Thomas Kissling from the VOGT Landscape Architects studio. The topic will be inspiring places for contemporary life, connections between people and their surroundings, and water in the landscape.
Michelle Delk will present in her lecture Beyond Borders the theme of landscape and human interactions with it. She will speak about the diversity of landscapes, which includes both wilderness and urban spaces, and the necessity of caring for the environment. She will show how, at Snøhetta, she seeks new possibilities that transcend conventional creative boundaries, with an emphasis on adaptive reuse of space considering social and cultural aspects. Based on the connection between classical architecture and landscape architecture, she will demonstrate how the principle of adaptive reuse is ingrained in the core of projects.
The lecture Without Shape, Without Smell and Without Taste, Without Borders? – Water is an Element Without Properties will be divided into three parts. In the first part, Thomas Kissling will focus on climate change and the future of urban landscapes. In the second part, he will discuss invisible design and its impact on the ecological sustainability of landscape architecture, illustrating principles with examples from projects such as Park Hyatt in Zurich or Laban Dance Center in London. In the final part, he will address water as a public good and its significance for urban space, which will also include the topic of access to drinking water as a cultural element of urban identity.

The lecture will be held in English.
Michelle Delk is a partner and lead landscape architect at the renowned Norwegian studio Snøhetta, known for its combination of environmental and cultural sensitivity. Among their notable achievements are the Bibliotheca Alexandria and the new Opera House in Oslo. Michelle's work, based in New York, is transdisciplinary. Through simple designs, she creates places that strengthen relationships between people and their environment. She is an active member of the board of the Urban Design Forum in New York and a member of the board of The Cultural Landscape Foundation. She speaks at conferences and universities around the world.

Thomas Kissling represents the Swiss studio Vogt Landscape Architects, founded by Günther Vogt in 2000, which has expanded over the last two decades to London, Berlin, and Paris. His park and public space projects often feature collaboration with artists.

Under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy. The lecture is part of a project supported by a grant under the EEA and Norwegian funds 2024.