For many years, Professor Laurie Olin from the University of Pennsylvania has been taking groups of graduate landscape architecture students to international locations as part of an annual studio project focused on real-world design problems. These location-specific projects may last for a one, two, or three year period. For 2009, possibly continuing into 2010 and 2011, this studio  focussed on urban and rural design issues that had been identified by the Slavonice City Council.

The Olin International Studio 2009 commenced work at the University of Pennsylvania in January, visitited Slavonice the first half of March, and concludes back in Pennsylvania at the end of April. Professor Laurie Olin and his associate Hallie Boyce brought 14 students from the University of Pennsylvania, and Morna Livingston, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Philadelphia University, brought 2 students.

The students comprise an international group from the USA, Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, and the People’s Republic of China. Slavonice has the greatest number of Bohemian Renaissance houses with sgraffito decoration of any Czech city, and has maintained its original medieval city plan. The City has identified landscape architecture and urban/rural planning issues that it believes need urgent attention, and this group of talented international students developed design ideas which they presented to the City Council.

Laurie Olin RLA, FASLA, is widely regarded as the pre-eminent American landscape architect of his generation. The Olin firm, 2008 recipient of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, is internationally recognized for its many years of activity at the forefront of landscape architecture design. The Olin International Studio’s inter-continental collaboration exemplifies the green diplomacy which the Centre for the Future seeks to promote.