Panama City
The most cosmopolitan capital in Central America, Panama City is both vibrant metropolis and gateway to tropical escapes. Many worlds coexist here. Welcoming both east and west, Panama is a regional hub of trade and immigration. The resulting cultural cocktail forges a refreshing 'anything goes' attitude, more dynamic and fluid than its neighbors.
Unflinchingly urban, the capital rides the rails of chaos, with traffic jams, wayward taxis and casinos stacked between chic clubs and construction sites. A center of international banking and trade, the sultry skyline of shimmering glass and steel towers is reminiscent of Miami. In contrast, the peninsula of Casco Viejo has become a thriving colonial neighborhood where cobblestones link boutique hotels with underground bars and crumbled ruins with pirate lore.
Escape is never far. Day trip to sandy beaches -Pacific or Caribbean-, admire the canal, or explore lush rainforests of howler monkeys, toucans and sloths.
Lonely Planet
About the Conference
The Organizations Urban Biodiversity and Design (URBIO) and the International Federation of Landscape Architects, Americas Region (IFLA-Americas) will hold a joint convention 25-27 October 2016, in Panama City, Panama. The meeting, at which we expect attendance of approximate 500 from around the world, will be fully co-planned and co-produced, uniting URBIO’s scientists and practitioners with IFLA’s landscape architects and designers.
The congress’ theme—From Cities to Landscape: Design for Health and Biodiversity—reflects the global need to reconceive how we build communities that benefit both people and the environment. As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, we cannot repeat the mistakes of past. Rather, we require a new paradigm that integrates social and environmental needs, that uses existing and fresh knowledge, mixing sectors and disciplines, to design human settlements in concert with nature.
About IFLA AMERICAS - URBIO
URBIO is a global organization of scientists and practitioners in urban biodiversity, ecosystem services and nature-based solutions to social and environmental problems; and is closely aligned with the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity.
IFLA is the world’s preeminent organization of landscape architects and designers.
Landscape architecture combines environment and design, art and science. It is about everything outside the front door, both urban and rural, at the interface between people and natural systems. Landscape architecture nurtures communities and makes their environment human and livable.
The IFLA AMERICAS-URBIO Congress, held over 3 days, has enormous potential to elevate and integrate discussion of evidence-based environmental design that serves both society and the environment. The meeting can be key in advancing important ideas in nature-based solutions that serve sustainability, resilience, beauty, justice, and livability. The cast of international, regional, and local partnerships is under development.
Choosing, Panama and Panama City as the host for our Congress is a natural choice in regards to Panama’s position at the cross roads of a unique continental landscape and its natural and diverse ecosystems.
Panama is an active partner of the UN Convention for Diversity (CDB) since 1995, and a member of IFLA since 2000 and recently created the ASAPP -Asociación de Arquitectos Paisajistas de Panamá-.
