Landscape Perspectives | Amsterdam & The Hague | World Cities Day

As we mark World Cities Day (31st October), we’re bringing together the final reflections from EDLA’s 2026 study trip to Amsterdam and The Hague.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve shared perspectives from across our team, exploring different approaches to landscape architecture and the common challenges facing our cities and urban environments.

From shared residential spaces and naturalistic planting to sustainable drainage, play and coastal resilience, the subjects are varied. But a common theme runs through them: the importance of integrating landscape into the planning, design and long-term management of our towns and cities.

What particularly interested us was how different approaches to design, governance and management influence the way landscapes function and evolve. Many of the challenges are familiar to us in the UK, but differences in context, culture and delivery can produce quite different outcomes.

These comparisons provide valuable opportunities to reflect on established practice, challenge assumptions and exchange ideas about how we collectively respond to increasingly complex urban and environmental demands.

An equally valuable part of the trip was spending time with fellow professionals in The Hague. Our thanks to Wim Van Krieken, Ruud Ridderhof and Hans Sparreboom, who generously shared their experience of the city’s regeneration projects, joined us in exploring several schemes and continued the conversation over dinner.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable exchange of professional perspectives, highlighting the value of international connections and the openness with which ideas and experiences can be shared across the profession.

As landscape architects, we work with many of the same fundamental challenges, regardless of geography. Bringing different perspectives together helps advance the conversation about how we design places that are resilient, connected and responsive to people and nature.

A fitting conclusion to our series, and to mark World Cities Day, a reminder of the value of making time for professional exchange, collaboration and looking beyond our immediate working environments.