Eric-Jan Pleijster (NL,1977) is a senior Landscape Architect and the co-founder of LOLA Landscape Architects. LOLA (LOst LAndscapes) is an internationally operating office for landscape architecture that studies and designs spatial transitions of degraded cultural landscapes. LOLA wants to transform these landscapes into beautiful, healthy and sustainable places. Whether in the city, the periphery or the countryside, LOLA aims to design sublime landscapes that make people enjoy, wander and wonder.

Eric-Jan graduated cum laude in Landscape Architecture at Wageningen University (2003). He brings imagination and passion into the research and design of complex spatial issues. Eric-Jan believes in the use of natural processes to optimize landscapes and to create unexpected and memorable experiences. His approach is climate-proof and nature inclusive, aiming to people closer to nature. For Eric-Jan the nature-based city is the future, where bio-receptive buildings and infrastructure contribute to biodiversity and climate adaptation.

Examples of his projects are the design of the Park Poelzone nature connection (2014), the redevelopment of the Bijlmerbajes prison in Amsterdam (2017-2022) and Feyenoord City in Rotterdam (2018-2021). His future exploration Plan B NL2200 (2019) was the start of a broad discussion about spatial planning, climate change and sea level rise in the Netherlands. Together with LOLA, Eric-Jan has written a number of books. Examples are the bestseller Dutch Dikes (2014, 5 book awards), the award-winning monograph ‘Lost Landscapes (2013)’ and the nature-driven manifesto ‘Lucky Ones’ (2022).