Versailles and Madrid Meeting on Landscape Architecture Archives

From 7–8 October 2025, Madrid hosted a focused meeting aimed at establishing archives in contexts where no dedicated Landscape Architecture archives currently exist. Centered on laying the foundation for the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) archive, the sessions were part of the broader Iberian Landscape Architecture Memory (ILAM) project.

The two-day programme brought together 5–6 working group members and collaborators for site visits, workshops, and stakeholder discussions. On the first day, participants toured the URJC’s potential archival space, reviewed existing collections, and engaged in an action-oriented workshop to define essential physical, metadata, and technical requirements for a new archive.

Day two included visits to the ETSAM Fondo Silva Archive, roundtable discussions with the Asociación Española de Paisajistas (AEP) on content and institutional support, and collaborative workshops to define pilot collections, metadata standards, and interoperability practices. The meeting culminated in drafting the “Madrid Roadmap,” a clear six- to twelve-month plan outlining pilot projects, technical steps, metadata commitments, and stakeholder roles.

The meeting set a solid foundation for future archival initiatives across Spain and Portugal, promoting structured collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the development of ILAM as a unifying vision for Landscape Architecture memory in the region.