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!

Winner of the 2022 LILA Honour Award is Gilles Clément 

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.

Winner of the LILA 2022 Office Award is Bureau B+B urbanism and landscape architecture

Bureau 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.

2022 Special Jury Award is Cycling Through Limburg by Visit Limburg

Cycling 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.

Winner of the LILA 2022 in Private Gardens is Quarry Garden by TEN x TEN

This 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.

Winner of the LILA 2022 in Campuses and Corporate is UNIT City 2nd Stage by Kotsiuba

The 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.

Winner Ex-Aequo of the LILA 2022 in Infrastructure is Reblooming Here: Erhai Lake Ecological Restoration Project by Arcplus with Zeho

The 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.

Winner of the LILA 2022 in Schools and Playgrounds is Songzhuang Micro Community Park by Crossboundaries

The 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.

Winner of the LILA 2022 in Hospitality is The Unbound by Felixx

No 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.

Winner Ex-Aequo of the LILA 2022 in Infrastructure is Nieuwe verbinding N69” (new provincial connection N69), greenest road of the province of Brabant by H+N+S Landscape Architects

H+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.

Winner of the LILA 2022 in Residential Housing is Dune Roof, Groenmarkt, Amsterdam by Buro Harro

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!

Winner of the LILA 2022 in Products is Vector Pole by Dexter Lighting

This 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.