Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
October 30, 2013 at 10:20 pm #157300
Gabino CarballoParticipantASLA supports Landscape Architects under attack in Brazil
October 29, 2013 at 7:48 pm #157301Gabino CarballoParticipantHi,
It has taken a while, but it looks like the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) support Landscape Architects’ Professional Regulation in Brazil.
http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/27686014#!
CLARB have also expressed support for professional regulation in Brazil:
http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/27686072#!
I am glad that ASLA and CLARB and getting on with this, and I glad to hear that people in the US understand the concept of professional regulation.
Next: Spain, please!
October 26, 2013 at 1:54 pm #157302Gabino CarballoParticipantHi Robert,
Thank you for your beautiful reply. That is a nice tale to tell about becoming a Landscape Architect.
I agree that Landscape Architecture has many roots in Europe, even if some of the oldest and most fantastic manufactured landscapes ever conceived blossomed in places like the Middle East and China.However, Landscape Architecture as a profession, with strong beliefs in its ability to change society for the better has many more roots in the US.
I teach some lectures at some of the Universities in Barcelona, some for US students, and they are always surprised at my presentations about Olmsted.
Somehow, they are not aware of his egalitarian ideals regarding public space, or how he saw the American Landscape as a moral repository for the nation.
Students seem surprised to find that common green space has not always been equally accessible to all citizens. This principle may now be fundamental to the idea of a “public park”, but was not assumed as necessary before him.
So, ideas about how society should work generate public policies and these are inextricably linked to politics.
“Politics” has its roots in “Polis”, greek for City, the same root as “polite”, in the same way that “civilized” has a root in Latin “civitas”, City again. And you know that life in cities needs public participation and politics, otherwise you get a totalitarian citadel.
Cannot scape politics. The problem is that sometimes we get trapped by the lowest common denominator in politics: self-serving interest. Thus, decent people get out of politics and we are left with whatever social flotsam cares to drift in the resulting unhealthy miasma.
This kind of politics inevitable leads to another kind of politics: that of individual action, challenging the establishment with whatever legal or administrative avenues are left, often against your best interest.
This is a tale of such a behaviour:
Sven is good guy and we are all grateful for his work, he has made no friends, but he has got a result for Landscape Architects in Spain: nobody can say any more that things are ok here in Barcelona, Madrid and the rest.
It sets the foundations for change, if we survive the war, that is.
We are positive people though. We believe that there are other things, beyond Landscape Architecture, and we believe that we have a responsibility towards our fellow citizens.
So we care to dignify our work with initiatives such as this “Making Landscapes – Saving Lives”:
http://elmanifiestodelospaisajistas.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/making-landscapes-saving-lives/
I would like to encourage you all to copy it and replicate it all over the world.
Landscape Architecture is a beautiful profession: it is worth working for it!
Thanks again!
Gaby
October 15, 2013 at 9:43 pm #157304Gabino CarballoParticipantHi all,
As in Spain, it looks like Brazilian Landscape Architects are working tirelessly to achieve full recognition for Landscape Architecture as a profession in Brazil.
Landscape Architects have already access to a number of graduate and postgraduate studies in Brazil, and there are new ones emerging. Sadly, they lack full professional regulation and the ability to obtain licensure. It has been known for a while that Brazilian Landscape Architects Brazil need enabling laws to apply for licensure.
Such a law is being pushed though the Brazilian house of representatives, the Draft Bill 2043/2011. This move enjoys CLARB’s support, alongside Stephanie Landregan’s ASLA President Elect.
This salutary process is being strongly resisted by Architect’s professional body ABAP. They claim Architects and Town Planners have sole right to practice Landscape Architecture in Brazil.
ABAP has even used New York’s Highline as an argument AGAINST Landscape Architects, as you can see in this video in the minute 14:49. This is a cynical assault on Landscape Architects, paid for with our own money!
You can read more here:
June 15, 2012 at 7:13 am #157306Gabino CarballoParticipantIt is pretty clear.
I think that we are coming from the same angle because we can see that the people not very happy about this move, about getting a professional license, are the people who show up in magazines and nice pictures with expensive projects that only look good on websites.
I’ll here our latest post, which I think depicts the situation in Europe pretty well.
http://elmanifiestodelospaisajistas.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/landscape-architecture-in-europe/
June 11, 2012 at 9:18 pm #157289Gabino CarballoParticipantJeeezz, so that was my problem all along…
June 11, 2012 at 9:16 pm #157308Gabino CarballoParticipantOk, I can see what you are saying, but I guess that there is a misunderstanding.
Technically, in European English legal speak”regulation” of a profession is simply the set of rules and laws that govern attaining a certain qualification, acquiring some experience in a structured environment and then being able to practice with legal guarantees ie: having a form of professional insurance that may cover yourself or clients if something goes wrong.
I guess that the three letters after your name imply that you are a “Registered Landscape Architect”, possibly from Australia.
When I was in Britain I acquired the CMLI letters, which is a regulated title and can only be used by those that the Landscape Institute says that may use the title.
This is what we mean by regulation.
In this context, “Regulation” does not mean exclusivity to practice. It means ability to carry out the work we can do without obstacles.
You say “The answer to your question “How can Landscape Architecture contribute to a new professional free market?” is to be responsive to it. It is that simple”
The problem is that European professional markets do not work like that. You cannot enter into a contract for quite a few projects if you do not hold a regulated professional title, and you cannot obtain insurance to cover your professional activity.
This is what we are seeking to reverse.
You could say “Well, then ask for deregulation” but the problem is that the list of regulated professions is huge, vast and means asking 300 million people to give up their current legal system.
So we are asking to be regulated, so 10.000 people or so, can lend professional services freely, without having to use architects and engineers as middle men.
I hope this is clear now.
June 10, 2012 at 10:46 pm #157312Gabino CarballoParticipantAs I said, you have a problem.
I told you to shut up because your are calling me a racist.
I will say again, shut up and get working, your country is bankrupt.
As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to defend.
There is either a law that regulates Landscape Architecture as a profession in Portugal or there is not. All the Portuguese Landscape Architects that I know say that there is not and I know a few.
The European database of regulated professions says that there are only five countries that regulate LA. You can check this at the EU website or write to the Commissioner Michel Barnier, as we have done.
You say that there is one law regulating Landscape Architecture and you mention an article of it (theoretically, because I don’t know where it comes from)
I would like to know what law is that one, what date it is from and what is about and where i can find it so we can write to the Commissioner at the IMCO and ensure that Portugal is included in the database.
This will have advantages for other European countries that do not list LA as a profession. All precedents count.
Your reply to all this is something to do with Brazil, countries in Africa, Portugal being better off without Europe, etc.
You clearly are incapable of providing any coherent information.
You want me to believe what you say simply because you are Portuguese.
I don’t even know if you are Portuguese.
You could be a Spaniard trying to embarrass Portugal.
You certainly behave like one.
June 10, 2012 at 6:42 pm #157313Gabino CarballoParticipantCan you please copy my racist comments here, so I can see them?
Maybe you haven’t noticed but my surname, Carballo, is the Galician spelling of Carvalho.
My father’s ancestors come from Camba, north of the Portuguese border and they themselves haul from Portugal.
How can I be racist, when I have a considerable amount in Portuguese in me, is beyond me. Suit yourself.
As for your knowledge of Portuguese legislation and professional regulation, you make me laugh. You know nothing about your country.
Shut up and get working.
June 10, 2012 at 5:04 pm #157314Gabino CarballoParticipantHow would you rewrite it?
Landscape Architecture is not regulated, and is therefore outside the professional market.
Architecture and Engineering are regulated and enjoy all the advantages of free market.
Why professional regulation is incompatible with a free market in the light of these events?
June 10, 2012 at 5:01 pm #157315Gabino CarballoParticipantI think that you have a problem.
June 10, 2012 at 3:31 pm #157358Gabino CarballoParticipantI would say that you have a pretty good deal in the US, compared to other countries, as far as Landscape Architecture is concerned.
And yes, FLO made a big difference.But just last week I read and article in LAM slagging him and saying that he was “holding down the profession”. A bad sign of things to come.
I will be very surprised to find out that ASLA has any interest on this matter.
Something I have learnt in recent years is that most professional organisations work on very short term goals that spin around the interests of those running them.
Their main concern is getting people to continue to pay for subscriptions, so they put all their efforts in marketing and communication spin, to make people feel good about themselves by proxy.
In the meantime, your income is reduced year on year whilst other professions steal the pace on LA.
Very rough ride ahead indeed.
June 10, 2012 at 12:39 pm #157359Gabino CarballoParticipantThere must be a problem with communication that I am not quite understanding here.
Firstly, I am sure that you have saved any number of laws in your hard drive. Fantastic. Quite simply.
The problem is that nobody else seems to have those laws that you have and we would be delighted to have a reference, a number, a date, so we can all find out where they are and what they say.
We cannot write to the European Commissioner to say: “look, there is this law in Portugal that Joaquim keeps in a draw”
I am afraid that it does not work like that. So please do let me know where we can find this law, and what law it is that you are referring too.
As for difficulty learning language, I think I said that Spanish Speaking People have a greater difficulty understanding Portuguese than the other way round.
Spanish speaking people have a certain difficulty learning other language because our phonetics are very simple, and there are lots of sounds that we cannot differentiate.
This is not case for Portuguese speakers.
I hope that I made myself understood this time.
June 10, 2012 at 11:09 am #157317Gabino CarballoParticipantBut you cannot tell me what law specifically protects Landscape Architecture?
Basically, Portugal rules and Europe is shit, in your opinion. That’s about it.
I am sorry but I am responsible for your inferiority complex.
European Directives are binding, for your information.
Stop making stuff up, please.
June 10, 2012 at 11:06 am #157318Gabino CarballoParticipantCould you please pass me the reference in Portuguese so I can please check the legal reference?
I gave you the links to Laws that do not regulate professions, as far as I can tell.
Can I please know what are you talking about? This article does not imply that Landscape Architecture is regulated.
“Regulation” is a clearly defined legal figure in Europe.
It is important to work upon facts and just not opinions. You clearly want Landscape Architecture to be regulated, but it does appear in the European register of regulated professions.
And therefore it is not regulated because the European Directives explicitly says that any professions that are not regulated at EU level, will not benefit from any form of automatic recognition in Europe and will not be considered regulated.
So please, do let me know what law you re referring to.
-
AuthorPosts