The Landscape Architecture Studio of NBRSARCHITECTURE has been awarded a 2020 AILA NSW Landscape Architecture award for the design of Cairnsfoot Special Needs School. The annual awards program acknowledges the role that landscape architecture plays in the health and wellbeing of the community.
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The vision for the project was to create an environment that both shelters and challenges students. Shelter being at the heart of human need for safety and challenge being key to a child’s development. By integrating these ideas into play, over time students develop the confidence and skills to reach their full potential.
Creating environments with a human focus is core value of the NBRSteam. The idea of shelter in a physical sense provides protection through the built form, which gently shapes outdoor courtyard spaces. Learning spaces create a sense of reassurance, allowing for ‘escape spaces’, where children who feel overwhelmed can find a sensory haven, yet always maintaining sight lines for teachers. Students are challenged by equipment and features such as water play, climbing hills, achievable balance beams, a bike track, ball court, in ground trampoline and climbing frames.
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The most popular space in the school is a simply designed grassy hill, which students can sit atop and observe their environment with unimpeded 360-degree views. The steeply sloped embankments of this artificially turfed hill offer challenge in ascent and descent, encouraging play. A crawl tunnel through the hill also offers shelter.
Herb and vegetable gardens allow students to be involved in horticulture and the process of growing fruit and vegetables. Students can learn the concept of paddock to plate, where they can plant, cultivate, harvest and then prepare food for their consumption.
A range of finishes and textures such as steppingstones, timber balancing logs and textured concrete with stone inlays appeal to students’ senses. The inclusion of pedestrian crossings and signage creates a strong connection to the real world.
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Image credit: Alexander Mayes Photography
Text Credit: NBRSArchitecture
On November 19, the oldest city in Russia hosted the final jury meeting of the Open International Competition for the development of a master plan for the Derbent Urban District. Experts reviewed the concepts of the three finalists and chose the best design.
First Place
The first place was awarded to a consortium led by Novaya Zemlya, which included Groupe Huit (France), Mae Architects (United Kingdom), West 8 (Netherlands), and NRU HSE (Russia). This international consortium’s master plan is, at its core, human-centered. The key principle is to turn Derbent into a “compact city”, as measured on the human-centered scale; this implies further developing territories that already have an infrastructure in place, and thus prevents the emergence of isolated commuter districts. The architects want Derbent to be green again: Pleasantly landscaped streets with all the proper amenities will link the city districts together and improve the state of the local environment.
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The embankment is to be transformed into the city’s main community space. The old industrial zones will be replaced by new hotels, modern multi-purpose residential areas, and natural parks. It will also include a system of continuous pedestrian routes. At the heart of it all will lie a multifunctional waterborne space that will serve as the culmination of the route from the Naryn-Khala fortress to the sea, and a place where the old and the new Derbent meet. The winning project’s goal is to highlight that Derbent stands at a cultural crossroads, where its ancient past meets its future.
Second Place
Second place was awarded to a consortium led by IND Architects, which also included ADEPT (Denmark), SWA (USA), Knight Frank (Russia), and RussiaDiscovery (Russia). Their master plan has “Derbent spreads its wings” as its motto, as it proposes transforming the city’s outlines by giving it two wings: an urban oasis in the north, including orchards and an innovative agricultural park, and a community of master craftsmen and craftswomen in the south, home to a consumer goods industry hub. The urban garden network is to be enhanced by green streets, the quarries are to be converted into ecoparks, while the Samur-Derbentsky Channel at the mountain foot is to become a linear park, preserving water for the local community.
The historical center should be merged organically with the creative and business clusters, public recreation spaces, and entertainment zones. The embankment could be turned into a park, blending gradually into the natural landscape with its favorable microclimate.
Third Place
And finally the judges awarded third place to a consortium under the leadership of the Genplan Institute of Moscow (Russia), which also included the Ginzburg Architects Bureau (Russia), and SKTS (Russia). They have thoroughly analyzed the strategic documentation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Dagestan, as well as industry policy papers. They have also accounted for the current benefits and opportunities presented by Derbent and its agglomeration. The consortium’s architects follow a stage-by-stage principle of urban development, moving from the city center to the suburbs, while retaining a space-efficient urban layout. During the first stage, they propose developing infrastructure and transport, repurposing inactive facilities, and redesigning the embankment. The subsequent stages are to result in the creation of an entirely new urban district, which will be used for residential housing, community interactions, and business purposes, along with an agricultural and industrial complex, and a tourism infrastructure.
Text by Agency for Strategic Development Center (centeragency.org)
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a non-profit Washington, D.C.-based education and advocacy organization, announced that it will establish an international landscape architecture prize (“Prize”) to be conferred biennially.
This is the first and only international landscape architecture prize that includes a US$100,000 monetary award. In addition, the Prize features two years of related public engagement activities to honor a living practitioner, collaborative or team for their creative, courageous, and visionary work in the field of landscape architecture. The inaugural Prize will be awarded in 2021.
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Landscape architects, artists, architects, planners, urban designers, and others who have designed a significant body of landscape-architectural projects are eligible for this award.
The Prize will examine the state of landscape architecture through the honoree’s practice, showcasing how landscape architecture and its practitioners are transforming the public realm by addressing social, ecological, cultural, environmental, and other challenges in their work.
The honoree will be chosen in a multi-layered process, including a year-long nomination period followed with selection by a five-person jury comprised of internationally prominent landscape architects, artists, educators, designers, and others. The Prize will be administered by TCLF and overseen by an independent curator. The jury members and curator will be announced in the coming months.
For more information click here.
Like New York, London is going to have its own High Line Park in the future: 63 designs competed in an ideas competition on how a disused viaduct could upgrade London district Hammersmith. The two winners present the range of possibilities – from aquarium to Mediterranean park. The jury awarded two first prizes: to bauchplan (Munich) and Richard Jackson (London).
Aquarium instead of elevated railway
With “fish and chips: escape from the urban hustle and bustle”, bauchplan focuses on eco-social urban processes, which provide the district with access to a post-industrial infrastructure. The designers reactivate the abandoned elevated railway through strikingly orchestrated aquaponics: fish tanks and water basins form part of the viaduct and provide space for cultivating fish and plants, as well as leisure activities such as fishing, swimming and urban gardening.
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Highline under glass
Architect and garden designer Richard Jackson reinvents the London elevated railway as a sustainable garden space with a continuous promenade and stepped seating areas with his “Hi-Line” contribution. Two “biomes” catch the eye from an architectural perspective. These organically shaped greenhouses for tropical and Mediterranean plants also function as public areas and as a café. The Hydroponik Center towards the west showcases future ways of producing food.
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The Eiffel Tower is to get new surroundings. The tourist attraction and landmark of Paris draws several millions of visitors every year and is struggling with the tourist volume: the infrastructure of the area is just not designed for it. This is why the city set a competition for its redesign. Now a winner has been chosen.
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London-based landscape designers Gustafson Porter + Bowman won the competition for the redesign of of the area around the Eiffel Tower. This includes the Trocadéro gardens as well as the Champ de Mars, the tower itself and its promenade.
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The design by Gustafson Porter + Bowman allows for more pedestrian space and reduces traffic around the Eiffel Tower. Instead, better connections to public transport are to help visitors getting to the sight without causing an increased traffic load. This way, the landscape designers do their bit to help reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement by creating a “green lung” for the city. For this, they want to close the Pont d’Iéna to motor traffic.
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Public Participation
The Parisians have a say in the revitalization of their most important landmark, too: the winning team is holding a one-month exhibition to present its design to the public which is invited to express opinions and to give feedback. Gustafson Porter + Bowman will then include these ideas in their design.
