ELASA is the European Landscape Architecture Student Association. It promotes the exchange of ideas and information, as well as offering the opportunity for students to offer support to fellow landscape architecture students throughout Europe. The organisation primarily operates around meetings held twice a year, one being the Annual meeting (held at the end of August) and the mini meeting held in the spring.
Here students from all over Europe have the opportunity to meet, and participate in a program voluntarily organised by students of a professional school of that country. A theme is chosen and acts as the focus of the meeting. It offers students the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and understanding about landscape architecture in other countries as well as encouraging them to challenge issues and topics relevant to all students and professionals regardless of their nationality or experience.
Such meetings result in students gathering a wealth of information not only about a European country and its culture but also about Landscape Architecture on a European scale. Friendships and contacts are always made and often act as a starting point for further studies in Europe such as Erasmus and Socrates.
ELASA also represents European Landscape Students within the wider professional and academic world. These include IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architecture), EFLA (European Federation of Landscape Architecture), and ECLAS (European council of Landscape Architecture Schools). ELASA also participates in the LE:NOTRE project (Landscape Education: New Opportunities for Teaching and Research in Europe).
ELASA is an open association without a board or need to be a member through subscription fees. Meetings are organised on a voluntary basis by students from individual countries based purely on enthusiasm and dedication. The association
has been running successfully on this basis since the association was established in 1990.
For more information on the associations mentioned above, visit their websites:
EFLA (European Foundation of Landscape Architecture) http://europe.iflaonline.org/
IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) http://www.iflaonline.org/
Le:Notre (Thematic Network in Landscape Architecture) http://www.le-notre.org/