Urbanistica Podcast is collaborating with OYSTER26, the international landscape architecture seminar taking place at Filmhuset in Stockholm on 25 September 2026.
Through a special podcast series, we will meet some of the people behind the seminar, its international speakers and students, and explore questions about landscape architecture, urban planning, public space and the future of our cities.
From 30 people to an international meeting place
In the introduction episode, I meet Håkan Johnsson, Landscape Architect LAR/MSA at Topia Landskapsarkitekter AB, and Rosa Danenberg, PhD, Urban Planner at SLU
Håkan takes us back to the origins of OYSTER around 30 years ago. The idea was simple: bring inspiring international voices in landscape architecture to Stockholm and create a space for the profession to meet, learn and be inspired. What started with an audience of around 30 people has developed into a major gathering attracting hundreds of participants.
For Håkan, that original idea remains central: bringing the world to Stockholm, creating inspiration and encouraging people to return to their work with new perspectives.
OYSTER26: Unknown Ground
The theme for 2026 is “Unknown Ground.”
We are living through rapid climatic, ecological, social, economic and political change. We have knowledge, research and established ways of planning, but the conditions around us are changing quickly.
As Rosa explains in the podcast, we are increasingly working at the border between what we know and what we do not yet know.
How do we plan for an uncertain future? What tools will architects and planners need? How can we prepare cities and landscapes for needs that we cannot yet predict?
Instead of treating uncertainty only as a problem, OYSTER26 invites us to approach it with curiosity, experimentation and hope.
Four international perspectives
OYSTER26 brings four international speakers to Stockholm: Robin Winogrond, Francisco Javier Castellano Pulido, Sara Zewde and Tim Waterman.
Together, their perspectives move between practice, research, history, culture, politics and landscape urbanism.
The seminar explores landscape not simply as physical design, but as something connected to social structures, cultural histories, ecological systems and the stories we tell about places.
The programme includes four lectures, conversations and opportunities to meet other professionals and students, followed by dinner and a party.
Barriers: the OYSTER student competition
Students also have an important place at OYSTER26.
This year’s student competition explores the theme “Barriers” and asks how physical and social barriers manifest themselves in our cities.
Who can move freely through a city? Who feels included? What separates communities? And how can landscape architecture challenge the boundaries that affect people’s ability to participate in urban life?
The winning projects will be presented in connection with OYSTER26, and the Urbanistica collaboration will also give students an opportunity to expand on their ideas through podcast conversations.
Can landscape architects change the world?
One of the bigger questions in my conversation with Håkan and Rosa was whether landscape architects can really contribute to tackling challenges as large as climate change, segregation and political uncertainty.
Their answer points toward the importance of bringing research, practice and decision-making closer together.
We already have significant knowledge, but knowledge alone is not enough. Research needs to reach practitioners, politicians and policymakers, while professionals need spaces where they can exchange ideas, challenge established approaches and develop new ones.
OYSTER is one such space.
And although landscape architecture is at its heart, Rosa emphasises that these conversations extend far beyond one profession. Urban planners, architects, researchers, students and others working with cities all have something to contribute.
There may not be one future waiting for us. There may be many possible futures.
Unknown Ground is an invitation to be curious enough to explore them.
OYSTER26
25 September 2026
Filmhuset, Stockholm
🎟️ Get your ticket to OYSTER26
📸 Follow OYSTER Landscape Seminar on Instagram
Listen to the Episode on Spotify
Mustafa Sherif 