ACT Landscape Architecture Awards Revealed for 2022

AILA ACT has announced the winners of the 2022 Landscape Architecture Awards, celebrating projects with a key focus on urban greening and community engagement.

13 project submissions were entered, with exciting submissions spanning across categories such as Civic Landscape, Urban Design, Landscape Planning and Community Contribution.

Across the submissions, the ACT Jury were impressed to see a focus on the renewal and renovation of many Canberra-based parks and landscapes. They highlighted the community and civic nature of landscape architects across the state.

Every two years, AILA ACT runs the Landscape Architecture Awards to showcase compelling work. Today, AILA ACT has revealed the official winners of each category in their state.

Across the 13 project submissions, a total of 10 projects were awarded for their outstanding and positive contributions to Australian Capital Territory’s landscape architecture industry.

The entries included the creation of pollinator-friendly habitats, the reimagining of a traditional cemetery, and the revitalisation of an urban space, designed for social connection.

AILA ACT 2022 Awards Jury Chair Julian Raxworthy said Canberra has landscape architecture in its DNA, with the profession founded within the state, with its current urban form having been shaped by landscape architects over the last 100 years.

“With such a rich history in landscape architecture, it is unsurprising that the winning projects in this year’s Australian Institute of Landscape Architects ACT Chapter Awards were concerned with tweaking, upgrading, or adding new layers to existing landscape architecture projects in Canberra,” Mr Raxworthy said.

Canberra’s popular City Park Walk received the Landscape Architecture Award, recognising the reinvigoration of the space, and a unique approach to create different layers of use.

“The enhancements at City Park Walk are particularly wonderful in the way it offers visitors a variety of spaces and places in which they can congregate and gather, from a large formal expanse of grass dotted with seating to more intimate spaces incorporating raised garden beds and diverse planting, which prodigy welcome relief from an otherwise hard-scaped and heat island-affected urban setting,” Mr Raxworthy said.

Southern Memorial Park has also been acknowledged with an Award of Excellence for the reimagining of a traditional cemetery through unique landscape interventions and a focus on sustainability principles.

“The project demonstrates a great depth of thinking in terms of how the internment precincts have been configured, with careful consideration for a landscape setting designed to offer space for reflection and bereavement,” Mr Raxworthy said.

2022 AILA ACT Landscape Architecture Awards Winners

Research and Policy

• Overgrown: practices between landscape architecture and gardening by Julian Raxworthy — Landscape Architecture Award

Gardens

• National Museum of Australia Forecourt Garden by T.C.L. — Award of Excellence

Community Contribution

• Think outside the box and BEE aware by Redbox Design Group — Landscape Architecture Award

Parks and Open Space

• Henry Rolland Park by City Renewal Authority — Landscape Architecture Award

Civic Landscape

• Belconnen Arts Centre Walkway by Harris Hobbs Landscapes — Award of Excellence
• City Walk Urban Renewal Project by City Renewal Authority — Landscape Architecture Award
• The Capitol, Hobart Place by LSA Design Landscape Architecture — Landscape Architecture Award

Urban Design

• Belconnen Land Release Place Design Brief by PLACE Laboratory — Landscape Architecture Award

Landscape Planning

• Place Success Dashboard by City Renewal Authority — Landscape Architecture Award
• Southern Memorial Park by Place Laboratory and TCL — Award of Excellence