Winners of the 2022 Landscape Architecture Awards Have Been Announced in South Australia

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) has announced the winners of the South Australian Landscape Architecture Awards for 2022.

From inspiring projects with a focus on cultural heritage to rich, biodiverse landscapes, this year’s awards successfully reflect hope, healing, acknowledgement, and inclusivity, despite the many challenges of previous years.

Across 28 entries, a total of 19 projects have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to South Australia’s landscape architecture industry and the broader community.

Each year, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture (AILA) hosts the Landscape Architecture Awards to showcase compelling work. Today, AILA SA is proud to reveal the winners in each category.

The 2022 SA Awards Jury were delighted to see diverse, inspiring and well-designed projects across all categories, with an underpinning theme of facilitation. Considered, inclusive, and collaborative processes played an essential role in this year’s entries.

AILA SA Awards Jury Chair & AILA SA President, Daniel Bennett, has emphasised the important role that landscape architecture plays in enhancing the lives of the community.

“It is clear in 2022 that landscape architects in South Australia are charting a positive facilitation role in recognising Country, working with First Nations to acknowledge a painful and often disgraceful past to create places for truth-telling and reconciliation for the future.

“The Wangayarta project, a co-designed project between Kaurna Elders, Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation and Oxigen, demonstrates a deep conviction and commitment to reconciliation and healing, facilitating a project with a small budget as a space for everyone. All projects, regardless of scale and budget, should look to this project as a new benchmark for collaboration.

“Landscape architects are creating better cities. Dealing with age-old issues of how our suburbs can deliver better places that perform more sustainably, dealing with climate change and the impacts of where we are in the world, on the edge of the desert.

“The Hawthorn Reserve/Mitcham Library project by the City of Mitcham and ASPECT demonstrates that a few key changes to how we approach existing built-up places can change for the better.

“Creating a great, new, green and pleasant place in the centre of suburban Mitcham, as well as integrating climate-positive design, reducing flooding risk, improving habitat and biodiversity, and rethinking how our waterways can be rescued: from concrete drain back to a more naturalised form.

“This year’s awards reinforce good design as not only essential to enriching and sustaining our lives, it also performs a critical role in mitigating the heaving and real threats from a changing, warming and dysfunctional climate.” Mr. Bennett said.

Further info and images of the winning projects can be found over on AILA’s website.