IFLA student design competition

Entries close tonight at 10pm for those wanting to enter the International Federation of Landscape Architects student design competition. The competition is part of the 55th IFLA World Congress being held in Singapore in July. It’s objective is to recognise thoughtful and innovative environmental design work by students in Landscape Architecture educational programs. It invites submissions from students or teams of students in Landscape Architecture programs (or undergraduate and graduate students studying landscape architecture where the university does not have a program specifically identified as landscape architecture).

This year’s theme is “Resilient Landscape” which organisers say could be interpreted as resilience for natural disasters, and/or by exploring the negative effects of urbanisation. A total of US$9,250 is up for grabs.

The 'Global Energy Landscapes' project which won last year's IFLA student design competition.

Last year a project dealing with tidal energy generation in the Patagonia beat off 193 other submissions to take out first prize. Entitled “Global Energy Landscapes: evolutionary process of infrastructures in new territories. The Patagonia case” the project was a group submission comprising of  Tomas Esteban Pont Apostolo, Stefano Romagnoli, Juan Cruz Serafini from Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and Design, National University of Cordoba, Argentina.

The theme was “Landscapes of Power”. The winners said it was an “essay on the new capabilities and responsibilities of man-made logistics to intervene in the planet’s resources in the new century. It attempted to introduce minimal components in a territorial scale project, forming networks in order to achieve the domestication of new infrastructures.”

The jury considered it to be a well-executed project with compelling design resolution at many scales and levels. They said the research was effectively synthesized and presented graphically. It included many “superior” graphic elements and was tied together in one coherent presentation that included well-defined landscape character in which the human experience was easy to read and understand, they said. “This project demonstrates the potential leadership role of landscape architecture in addressing large-scale regional and territorial issues.”