Tuesday 21 June 2022: Landezine team proudly presents the winners of the 7th edition of LILA – Landezine International Landscape Award. We thank all participating professionals and students for their contributions. We thank invited LILA jury members Hanneke Kijne, Robin Winogrond, Sarah Cowles and João Nunes, who invested many hours in studying entries and discussing the recognitions for the project categories. Very special thanks go to the sponsor of LILA 2022, Landscape Forms!
Congratulations to all recognized practitioners!
Gilles Clément (1943) is a French landscape architect or better ‘paysagiste’, having a more garden design-related background. He is also a botanist, entomologist, and writer. His most important achievements are both in theory and practice. Through his work, Clément shows many paths to a more biodiverse future as he focuses on what truly matters to the well-being of all species. His approach is about effortlessness, working with natural forces and always celebrating diversity. It is a treasure of knowledge and a showcase of attitudes fit for the future, hence of great importance to our global professional community.
Read MoreBureau B+B has been around for more than 40 years. In The Netherlands it is righteously considered a cradle of successful landscape architects. Despite the vast portfolio and the inseparable heritage of B+B, the editors of Landezine were convinced and impressed by the latest projects that were designed by a team of young designers.
We recognize the work of Bureau B+B, mainly for their ability of combining innovative engineering approaches with context based design. They master a diverse span of attitudes; from being subtle and quiet, to making radical changes, or being playful. B+B’s recent designs reflect all the needed skills for handling complex tasks; from a busy urban train station to residential landscapes fit for the future, to wetlands.
But it is the work that tackles heritage sites that really separates B+B from an already remarkable crowd of Dutch landscape architects. The precision that is found in Tempel and Nieuw Rhodenrijs Estates or the conceptual clarity of the LILA 2019 winning project Objets Trouvés reflects the ability to untangle time-related complexities, to curate and to offer new, meaningful experiences.
Read MoreCycling Through is an ongoing project in Limburg, Belgium, where three stages of the project are realised (Cycling Through Heathland, Cycling Through Trees, and Cycling Through Water) with further ‘Cycling Through the Underground’ still underway.
The project deals with the restructuring of the Limburg area, where coal mining was closed throughout the 1980s and 1990s. A new identity and strategy for the province were envisioned, namely cycling tourism, that would take visitors out in the landscape and emphasise both the natural and cultural/industrial heritage. The team at Tourism Limburg was inspired by the Norway Tourist Routes, specifically how they connect scenic places and design.
Read MoreThis tiny urban backyard was transformed into a rich and dense layering of atmospheres and uses. The design recycles already extracted but discarded granite blocks from a local quarry – a sustainable attitude of working with the land. The charcoal grey, or ‘Graveyard’ granite, as central feature, pays homage to the depths of the local strata. The design explores the conventional concept of extending the interior spaces into the garden, yet done by an interweaving and shifting of wild landscape, threshholds and architectural planes. So, the tiny garden space is experienced as much larger than it is. The sunken garden ‘quarry’ is embedded in a dense thicket of birches and hemlocks, creating a mysterious atmosphere which neither the body, mind nor spirit can tire of.
For an American context, the Quarry garden is surprisingly modest, effortlessly disconnecting from the more traditional codes where a garden would often be dominated by an abundance of features, shapes and things.
Read MoreThe project by Kotsiuba offers a rich experience for the IT community on the campus. It responds to the blend of the post-industrial and corporate character of the site by the subtle play of pavement and establishing garden-like ambiences. There are two main open areas for events that reflect the urban scale of the project. A thick woodland band that includes playgrounds and sports areas buffers the campus space from a busy road. The uncluttered detailing provides an open and flowing space and contrasts with the articulated and diverse facades of the buildings.
Read MoreThe 129 km long, 900 hectare restoration of Erhai Lake greatly improves the quality of the “iconic yet filthy water” while connecting it to the surrounding towns. The lake has spiritual value for many communities, such as the Shuanglang and Xizhou, and serves as a place of worship for the Bai people, an ethnic minority of over 50% of Dali. The beautiful aquatic, blooming Ottelia acuminata is an indicator species and its significant return demonstrates the new sustainability of the lake.
The developed masterplan uses dynamic measures and methods in diverse scales to limit poor development practices and respond to social challenges, achieving maximal ecological benefit with minimal human intervention. With a multitude of government and local players, the project reinvigorates and monitors the entire watershed with waterscape management. The included slow traffic ways and facilities have created a boom in daily usage of the lake.
Read MoreThe project well addresses the dialogue between different scales – the well articulated and complex general layout of the park and the ‘touch and feel’ scale, sensitive and rich in detail. It establishes simple and unpretentious spaces with care and sincerity to its visitors.
It presents a courageous and intelligent use of color and proposes an ambience that, managing to constitute an excellent playground for children, escapes the banality of the usual catalogue-based playgrounds It also succeeds in involving a great diversity of uses to all ages of visitors, demonstrating the significant advantages of less determined spaces.
Read MoreNo site is ‘tabula rasa’, but sometimes, sites demand more creation than translation. This is the case with The Unbound, an imaginative design for a tourist resort based on being with the landscape, observing nature, and participating in food production. Despite the non-site-specific design language that unnecessarily neglects this area’s history as a characteristic dutch polder, the design for this high-end tourist resort adds to the bigger picture of a new, more natural green recreational wedge in the city of Amsterdam that brings tourists and inhabitants closer to the landscape and nature. Resort guests are invited to take part in the outside world, by which The Unbound gives new meaning to recreation in a city like Amsterdam.
Complex pathways together with strong low vegetation allow for the space to feel mysterious, a space that needs to be explored. Once the trees grow, another layer of complexity will reveal itself and add additional dynamics to the site.
Read MoreH+N+S yet again conquered the infrastructure category! N69 is a story on how to make roads more green. It is also about how people driving these roads can experience the essence of the surrounding landscape much better. In large part, it concerns the profile/section of the road where the quantity of the asphalt is reduced to the minimum and where the road is stripped of other elements. The animals are welcome to cross the road through a sequence of underpasses but also on the road, as, due to the fence-free profile, the visibility is much improved.
More or less linear masses of trees try to remain as uninterrupted as possible when crossing the road so birds can be protected while flying back and forth. A part of the road is lifted on the bridge so the animals can move seamlessly on the grounds.
This is how we should do roads.
Buro Harro envisioned an entirely artificial little piece of landscape with subtle humour and incredible craftsmanship. The landscape of the dutch dunes, with its vegetation, essentially acts as a small biodiversity generator. Water retention is hidden under the sand on the roof, and all the necessary technicalities are nicely put out of sight. The wooden hut gives it a relaxed, ‘holiday-ish’ mood. It is a ‘fragment’, a pocket landscape that offers more than enough clues that will transport you to a beach. The wind comes as the magic dust that makes this sandy roof garden come to life as one can be drawn into the feeling of being in the dunes … while taking a swim! Witty and smart!
Read MoreThis beautiful light, designed by Michiel Cornelissen and manufactured by Dutch company Dexter is ready to quietly supplement a range of different landscape typologies and contexts. Its design is smart and minimal and radiates subtle humour and elegance.
Read MoreThe ecolodge resort and recreational landscape project on the Poonehzar Farm are about the joy of dwelling outside, in the countryside. The design uses the existing corn fields, with their spatial and experiential maze qualities, as a starting point, inserting structures such as baths, an event platform, a fire pit and a lookout tower for temporary dwellings. These simple gestures establish a viewpoint and more intimate shelters or, better, a series of ‘rooms’ each with its purpose. It is remarkably simple and, at the same time, creative. The cornfield and the metal structure may be seen as a garden/labyrinth and a tower. The fact that the site is in culturally rich Iran adds a mythical dimension to the experience.
Poonehzar is a true garden built of agricultural material. The field of corn makes it ‘another space’ and adds to the enchantment. Or, in the words of the designers, »highlighting the boundaries of private and common, the playful childish sneak peeks, the innocent erotic air, the mania of being lost, the suspense of diving in imagination.« This is, in fact, a beautiful description of the meaning of a garden, be it physical or mental space.
Read moreThe project is a good example of an appropriate and well balanced intervention, not needing to resort to the glamor of images to convince around its ability to build a bond between users and built space. The jury appreciated low-cost interventions and formal simplicity that offer a high-quality environment for educational processes on limited roof space.
Read moreThe jury recognized how the designers dealt with stormwater. Once the densely planted trees grow, a ‘green cloud’ will emerge to balance the architecture. A generous planting plan and loosened formal expression will act as an important improvement to this dense housing. The jury also appreciated the cultivated messiness and that avoided an overdetermined formal language. Rather, the site is organized as field of sloping planes with subtle armatures that shape the spaces and circulation. Notable is the elegant water line runs througout the project, not as a delimeter of space, but a means to explore the site by following the water’s lead.
Read moreThe trail through the Flood Control Project in Arava valley is about curation and framing the intense power of flash flood events. A footpath guides visitors among strange features that arose from mitigating the force of seasonal waters, namely to protect a local road from being washed away. This surreal »beach« is surrounded by the eye-watering beauty of the Eilat and Edom Mountains. The main infrastructural element is water retention in an otherwise harsh desert with an extraordinary colour palette. The oddity of scale, shape and purpose of landscape structures, such as the tank-shaped soil landforms that were preserved during the excavations in order to sustain the acacia trees, appear inscrutable or at least utterly peculiar. Here the medium determines form, with varying scales of gravel, riprap and sediment shaping the landscape. This landscape infrastructure matches the sublime forces it is meant to contain. The team embraced all the curious spatial phenomena of retaining stormwater in a desert and collected them into a unique experience for the visitors.
Read moreGarden for the Bishop’s House is a remarkable study in volcanic rock and the creation of ambiences with the use of vegetation and stone walls. The latter is used to emphasise the enclosed ambient and to add elements of surprise. In this small space, visitors can be immersed in the world of microcosmos, the structure of the volcanic rock where the surface has already started to change due to weather conditions and use. Carefully selected plants are starting to spread out, over and in between the dark stones, and moss is becoming a part of this beautiful pavement. Modest means were used to create this mesmerising garden. A bit like a meaningful haiku, Bishop’s House garden will give you goosebumps in very few words.
The jury also appreciated the reference to Thomas Church, whose legendary Donnell Garden inspired the kidney-shaped pool. Beautifully alienated in colour, materiality, form and embedding a reference to another time, it appears as if the designers were intentionally dealing with the contradiction of the swimming pool rather than the swimming pool itself. A very mature and precise statement!
Read moreMarcel Tröger (Germany, 1991) is a young German landscape architect who already has several years of experiences of working in several landscape architecture offices. His work proves remarkable understanding of the changes and challenges happening to environement and consequently also our shifting perspectives. His projects are conscious of trans-scale complexities and spatial conditions, but also poetic and playful. His portfolio reflects a remarkably mature conceptual thinking meeting pure joy of designing.
Read MoreFarinoosh Hadian Jazy (Iran, 1996) is a Landscape architecture student (postgraduate) in UCL, Bartlett School of Architecture with Bachelors of Architecture. We recognize her ability to communicate graphically, her portfolio is full of interesting drawings that are somehow specific to the Bartlett school, but also unique and beautifully strange, approaching the intersection of illustration and data visualisation.
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