Big Ambition: International Landscape

The 2018 Landscape Institute Awards were the first to invite international submissions in a new category, the Dame Sylvia Crowe Award. The LI invited Dr Wei Deng, one of our 2018 judges, to deliver his analysis of what the entries say about the global health of the profession.

In 2018, the Landscape Institute launched its first-ever international award, named after Dame Sylvia Crowe (1901–1997), one of the most influential landscape architects in the mid-to-late 20th century.

She led the development and promotion of the landscape profession in the UK as well as internationally. The name of the award reflects Sylvia Crowe’s substantial contribution and indicates that the entries are required to exhibit an outstanding international contribution to people, places and nature.

I was extremely honoured to be a part of the judging panel and to witness one of the most memorable milestones in the awarding history of the Landscape Institute. After two hectic days of judging, I would like to share some of my experiences and thoughts.

We set high standards for the entries. The applications were expected to be top-quality landscapeled projects that not only present major achievements that benefit the physical outdoor environment, but also serve as exemplary cases for promoting the landscape profession worldwide. In light of this principle, more detailed criteria were applied and discussed throughout the judging process.

The jury mainly focused on three aspects: first, the entry should make a unique and outstanding contribution that improves outcomes for people, places and nature; second, it should represent the best practice outcomes for the profession of landscape design and exhibit great involvement and contribution from relevant professionals; and third, the contribution of the entry should be well recognised by third parties in order to provide support.

International recognition and contribution to the landscape profession is probably is the key aspect that differentiates the Dame Sylvia Crowe Award from the other Landscape Institute awards.

We received entries from Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa. Around half of these came from the People’s Republic of China, which reflects the rapid pace of development and plethora of projects executed in this country in recent years. Privately owned landscape practices dominated the applicants.

However, we also received several entries from the public sector, including the Countryside Commission (operated between 1968–1999) that was submitted by Natural England for its unique and outstanding contribution to improving the outcomes for the affiliated landscape and people.

In the future, we would welcome submissions from individuals and organisations globally, given that the entries demonstrate excellence and leadership in the global field of landscape and place.

Landscape operates at all scales and locations

Landscape architecture is defined as a discipline that aims to enhance and protect all types of outdoor spaces, regardless of the size or location. The submissions reflected this and exhibit extremely different locations for projects, from public space enhancement to remote villages in untouched mountains and contemporary amenity parks for office buildings in busy city centres.

Wangjing Soho Parks, China

Ecoland Planning and Design Inc., SOHO China, Zaha Hadid Architects

The submissions also covered an extremely wide range of scales, from the several hundred square metres of the ‘Rice Garden’ in Shanghai to the Pearl River delta scheme that spans thousands of square kilometres.

The 220-hectare Yulong Park projects in Fuxin New City, China, successfully integrates the urban spatial and economic growth with ecological enhancement. It improves the relationships between the existing mountains, rivers and the proposed urban extension areas.

In terms of small scale projects, the Ian Potter Children’s Wild Play Garden in Australia demonstrates how landscape practitioners can incorporate native nature into their design to create ‘Wild Play’.

It only covers 0.65 hectares but is full of surprises and encourages children’s imaginations to run wild. These projects demonstrate how landscape practitioners understand and respect the laws of nature at different scales and then use these resources to improve nature and the built environment.

Landscape combines art and technical innovations

It is not difficult to see that sustainability is one of the key goals for most landscape-led schemes, irrespective of whether they use traditional or cutting-edge techniques. The actual challenges are always associated with implementing the appropriate techniques and achieving outcomes while retaining outstanding aesthetic value.

The ‘Quarry Garden’ in Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Gardens is one of the best examples of such a combination of artistic ambitions and technical innovations, transforming an unpleasant, abandoned and polluted place into an attractive leisure destination.

Quarry Garden in Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden

Yufan Zhu Studio, Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning and Design Institute; Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University.

This project is extremely rich in technical achievements: the unstable cliffs of the quarry were assessed and mitigated; contaminated water and soils were treated and improved; the flora was carefully selected and designed to match native species; and new footpaths were carefully built and laid out to take visitors through a journey full of beautiful views and vibrant spatial experiences, which borrow aesthetic philosophy from Chinese traditional paintings.

‘Gardens by the Bay’ in Singapore, another multi-awarded botanic garden, is also an outstanding project that demonstrates how landscape architects can push imagination to its limit by creating a series of beautiful man-made ‘tree skyscrapers’. Cuttingedge techniques have been used to reflect the local climate, ensure healthy growth of the plant species and achieve a sustainable scheme.

Landscape encourages community engagement

The landscape profession is not only concerned with the natural environment but also pays close attention to the social aspects of communities. From a large number of submissions we can see that public engagements have been well used and form an important aspect of the design process.

Rice Garden, China

College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Innovation Urban Green, Farming Club.

The project ‘New Life in Hutongs’, a public space renovation project in Beijing, China, revealed an innovative approach to engaging local residents. It precisely addresses the social and physical problems, then mitigates the issues within a limited time-frame and budget.

The project successfully transformed a series of derelict public spaces into attractive locations within a well-linked, non-vehicular movement network. Hutong residents are therefore encouraged to go outside and meet in these outdoor ‘living rooms’.

As such, the sense of local identity has been clearly highlighted and strengthened. Singapore’s first ‘Themed Public Playground’ scheme was designed and built by the local community. This means that, in this case, engaging local groups was even used as the main design mechanism there.

Landscape to lead sustainable growth

From the entries this year, it is easy to conclude that landscape, as a profession, has become increasingly important for creating healthier natural and built environments in the world.

In many cases, landscape practitioners are gradually paving the way for growth in both developed and developing countries, particularly for city regeneration, urban extension, environmental restoration and public space schemes.

The Block, Dubai Design District

desert INK / Desert Group, Tecom, Dubai Design District, Proscape, Parsons

This fast-changing world is pushing landscape practitioners to the frontline to face challenges in the near future. This means landscape architecture has become a much more comprehensive profession than ever before.

We will have to ensure that we are armed with a broad spectrum of knowledge and that we are competent enough to deal with climate change, shortage of natural resources, environmental pollution and potential economic crises.

After building a stronger co-operative relationship with other disciplines, I believe landscape architecture will lead the way in supporting the ‘big ambition’ of sustainable growth. It was a gratifying to see that this was partially achieved within some of the submissions this year, no matter how small the projects were.

Dr Wei Deng is a principal landscape architect at AECOM.