This year’s fifth edition of the Landezine International Landscape Awards – LILA – took place under extraordinary circumstances. The winning entries were announced without an award ceremony due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. The jury gave out 7 awards and 5 special mentions, while the editors of Landezine selected the recipients of the Office and Honour Awards. Editor-in-chief Zaš Brezar pointed out that the award winners illustrated the large variety of approaches and current dominating themes within landscape architecture.
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The winning projects in the categories Public Project – Phase Shifts Park by French landscape architects mosbach paysagistes – and Infrastructure – Girona’s Shores by EMF – stood out for their aspiration to give back to society and a relaxed, informal design approach instead of overdesigning spaces. With regard to the Catalan project the jury recognized the role of the landscape architect not only as designer, but as a social catalyst enabling positive change.
Phase Shifts Park by mosbach paysagistes:
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Girona’s Shores by EMF:
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Special mentions in these categories went to the projects Lifting The Palm Grove To a Higher Level in Morocco by Building Beyond Borders, Yongqing Fang Alleyways – An Urban Transformation by Chinese architects Lab D+H and the Ballerup Boulevard in Denmark by Marianne Levinsen Landskab.
Swiss project Fold’s Childhood by Gilles Brusset won the Playgrounds category. A play with topography and two different materials, the project takes its inspiration from the geological processes that shaped the Jura Mountains and creates an interesting contrast to the surrounding modernist residential housing complex. “While the design tools are simple, they offer a layered complexity within this simplicity,” the jury stated.
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Selected as winner of the Hospitality category was the Catalan project Terra Dominicata Hotel & Winery by SCOB Architecture & Landscape, with a special mention to Cloud of Hometown in China by gad · line+ studio. Danish architects Juul Frost Architects received the award for the Residential category for their project Flyvestation Værløse. A special mention went to the French project Square Maïmat by Emma Blanc. The awards in the Gardens category were handed out ex aequo to Ellipse Garden in Denmark by Kjeld Slot Havearkitekt and Dutch project Anticipating the Landscape by Andrew van Egmond.
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The Enfant terrible of the landscape architecture scene
Topotek 1 was selected as this year’s winner of the Office Award. “Enfant terrible” of the landscape architecture scene with a unique approach, attitude and confidence that dares to experiment, according to Brezar, something that “the Landezine team would truly wish to see more of in landscape architecture offices around the world.”
Honour Award winner Charles A. Birnbaum, founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, has been recognised for his outstanding advocacy work to foster the appreciation of landscape and landscape heritage within society. His promotion of the social, cultural and environmental values of landscape is of outmost importance to the profession, as the “condition for the landscape architecture community to thrive in a society lies in an understanding of the work we do.”
Diversity of contemporary landscape architecture
With the selection of this year’s award winners, the jury not only highlighted the diversity of contemporary landscape architecture, but rewarded the willingness to push the limits of the profession through process-based and flexible approaches, the exploration of new aesthetics and typologies, and a strong focus on the human aspect of our work.
Landezine is calling professionals from the field of landscape architecture to submit entries to the fifth edition of LILA – Landezine International Landscape Award. Final deadline is 3rd April.
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This year, offices practicing landscape architecture can contribute unlimited number of submissions. Up to 44 entries will be recognized: 6 jury awards, 2 editorial awards, up to 6 special mentions and up to 30 shortlisted entries. All submissions will be published on LILA website that accepts over 100,000 visitors per year.
Besides the Office and Honour Award, there are 6 categories of project awards:
PUBLIC PROJECT – Interesting and exceptional publicly accessible social spaces. Squares, parks, waterfronts …
INFRASTRUCTURE – Landscapes that were primarily designed to solve a technical issue with or without the human-scale layer. Publicly accessible or not. Traffic, energy production, large scale water management …
PRIVATE GARDENS – private residential gardens for single family houses
RESIDENTIAL HOUSING – Collective housing, questioning the design of the semi-private open spaces for communities.
HOSPITALITY – open spaces for short term stays (hotels, resorts, bars and similar)
SCHOOLS AND PLAYGROUNDS – open spaces for schools, kindergartens and similar
All projects must be built in 2016 or later.
++ Final deadline: Friday, 3rd April ++
++ Registration Fee: 150 euros per each entry ++
For more information on the registration click here.
This year, two 5-member juries evaluated a total of 119 eligible office profiles, 249 public projects and 44 gardens. There is one winner in each of the three category, one special mention in office category and one in garden category.
The LILA 2018 award ceremony will take place on Saturday, 13 October, as part of Landezine LIVE at HafenCity University Hamburg.
2018 Winner in Office Category:
mosbach paysagistes, France
The jury members praised Catherine Mosbach as an outstanding and talented force that drives the profession beyond excellence, reveals hidden levels of design and reflects on the landscape. The result is a portfolio of strong conceptual work. Particularly worth mentioning is the environmentally and socially responsible way in which the office works.
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2018 Special Mention in Office Category:
Strelka KB, Russia
Strelka KB act as a bridge between Russian society and the global design sector. They are characterised by their role as moderators, initiators and project drivers. They do not claim to be design experts, but help with their local expertise, their willingness to find their way around the local environment and their desire to make a difference. Strelka KB is a colourful collective of hundreds of young professionals who want to change their city and their country.
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2018 Winner in Project Category:
Renaturation of the river Aire, Geneva by Atelier Descombes Rampini, Group Superpositions, Switzerland
The project answers questions on the reintroduction of nature into the artificial landscape and on dealing with the landscape in rural-urban peripheral areas. It reactivates the old river channel for visitors by combining new modest elements and simple structures into a powerful experience.
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2018 Winner in Garden Category:
Lake Marion Private Retreat by Coen+Partners, USA
The members of the jury praised this garden as an excellent opportunity to bring the inhabitants into nature because it is easy to use and to explore. An ordinary place was curated by Coen+Partners and transformed into a dramatic landscape with different atmospheres and unique character.
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2018 Special Mention in Garden Category:
Salaam House by The Landscape Studio, Kenya
What is a “garden” and what does it represent? Salaam House is a landscape architecture project that sends a message: We can create a garden with a subtle approach, simplicity and a modest budget by preserving and appreciating what we already have.
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LILA 2018 PUBLIC CHOICE AWARDS:
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Each year, Landezine offers the landscape architecture award LILA. Landscape architects and product manufacturers can submit their projects until March 31.
Award-winning landscape architects
For the third time, the Society for Promotion of Landscape Architecture offers the Landezine International Award 2018, in short LILA. Landscape architects interested in participating can submit their projects for three different categories: “Office”, “Public Project” and “Private Garden”. There is a jury prize as well as an audience award for each category.
For the categories “Office” and “Public Project”, an International jury of landscape architects and urban planners is looking for publicly accessible projects that have been realized since 2014. For “Private Garden”, they are looking for private gardens, back yards or parks that are closed to the public.
Landscape designers can submit an unlimited number of projects for each category. Previously submitted projects are automatically considered again.
Award-winning products
A fourth category addresses product manufacturers. This year’s audience award will go to a modern street lighting system. The Landezine product catalog presents all submitted projects for one year after which the Landezine team will narrow down the choice and the audience will vote for their favorite.
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LILA 2017
In September 2017, the jury awarded the LILA 2017 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Among the winners of the category “Office” were the Dutch firm H+N+S for their visions for energy and landscape culminating in the project “Room for the River” and agence ter with their project “Park at the Docks” in the French suburb of Paris Saint-Ouen.
