2022 IFLA EUROPE Student and Young Professionals Competition Winners!
2022 IFLA Europe Students and Young Professionals Competition
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2022 IFLA Europe Student and Young Professionals’ Competition:
Category A - Conceptual Ideas - winner: Vardi Gali
1st place: Vardi Gali, TECHNION Israel Institute of Technology, member of ISALA Israel with the entry “Resilient Path”
2nd place: Wanying Peng, MLA Bartlett School of Architecture, member of Landscape Institute with the entry “Chromatic riparian decontamination”
3rd place: Marta Szar, member of SAK Poland with the entry “Rain Park”
Category B - Realised Projects - winner: Kamila Rogaczewska
1st place: Kamila Rogaczewska, member of SAK Poland with entry “PoPo Park”
People’s Choice Award
Batuhan Ünlu, Istanbul Technical University and member of UCTEA Chamber of Landscape Architects Turkey with the entry “Kirkcesme Historic Park”
Winners of Category A and Category B will attend MARK Finland Congress and IFLA Europe General Assembly which will take place 14-16 October 2022 in Helsinki, Finland.
Competition participants had to be enrolled landscape architecture student or a practitioner in the field of landscape architecture as well as a member of a National Association which is IFLA Europe member - list of all IFLA Europe National Associations was available on our website IFLA Europe National Associations.
2022 Jury Members
Urszula Forczek-Brataniec, past IFLA Europe Secretary General and Professor at Krakow University of Technology,
Darija Perkovic-Bosnjak, IFLA Europe Vice President for Communications
Eszter Bakay, ECLAS, Associate Professor, Institute of Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning and Garden Art
Manuel Marti, Hunter Industries
Jan-Hendrik Schlutter, VESTRE
We received 30 entries from across Europe for Category A: Conceptual Ideas and Projects and 1 entry in Category B: Realised Projects.
Jury has evaluated all entries based on four main criteria:
* Presentation and graphical quality
* Pertinence of the entry regarding the topic,
* Concept development
* Project innovation Demonstration of technical feasibility.
On this occasion, Darija Perkovic-Bosnjak, Vice President for Communications, prepared the following Jury Statement:
The 9th edition of the IFLA Europe Student and Young Professionals Competition was organised in 2022 by IFLA Europe Communications Committee. The Competition theme was “Boldness & Beauty” with the focus on the interaction of technology, man, and nature, and their mutual relationships in landscapes. Because Landscape Architecture is a profession that makes our society’s relationship with nature visible, not just by designing the final result (a static scenery), the subject of interest of this year’s Competition were unique Landscape Architect’s skills and know-how in creating and controlling complex processes in landscapes.
IFLA Europe Communications Committee was proud and happy to receive 30 competition entries in Category A – Conceptual projects, with participants from all parts of Europe (Albania, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom) and one entry in Category B.
The competition entries were evaluated according to pertinence of the entry regarding the topic, presentation and graphical quality, project innovation and demonstration of technical feasibility. An equal number of big scale and smaller scale competition entries have been submitted.
Our youth has shown a wide range of contribution that Landscape Architects have in creating a better future for communities in urban, rural, industrial and natural landscapes, with various examples in the field of storm-water management, coping with water scarcity, adaption to sea level rise, countering floods, restoration of degraded landscapes, protection of maritime landscapes, forest restoration, protection against forest fires, (re)creating ecological corridors, “rewilding” antropogenized landscapes, promoting heritage and art, mitigation of consequences of urbanization and reconsideration of urban gaps.
Half of the competition entries deals directly with biodiversity and ecosystems, which is crucial to consider when intervening in landscape. Although both approaches were acceptable, the competition entries relate mainly to design projects and to a lesser extent to examples of methodology and actions. Several of the most successful competition entries have indeed shown that innovative bold actions and beautiful design can be applicable at the same time. After evaluating this year’s entries, Jury is happy to conclude that the best evaluated entries indeed followed competition topic (technology, man and nature; controlling processes in landscapes, not just designing scenery). Not all of the entries were in accordance with the focus of competition.
The best three evaluated entries are in different fields of Landscape Architecture (forests, restoration of degraded landscapes and (storm)water management), in different scales (both big and smaller scale examples), two of them directly considered biodiversity and ecosystems what is extremely important in Landscape Architect’s work and should always be included and elaborated. The best three evaluated entries are from three different National Associations - Israel, United Kingdom and Poland, and this geographical and cultural variety is also a value.
IFLA Europe Communications Working group for IFLA Europe Students and Young Professionals Competition 2022: Daniela Micanovic-Franckx, Manuel Sánchez and Darija Perkovic Bosnjak, Chair of the competition.
1st place: Vardi Gali, TECHNION Israel Institute of Technology, member of ISALA Israel with entry “Resilient Path”
Due to the climate crisis, extreme fire incidents are increasing all over the world. In August 2021, a destructive wildfire erupted in the Jerusalem mountains in Israel. This fire caused thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
From the analysis of the fire, it shows that the firefighters could have stopped the fire from progressing towered the settlements if they had used the existing forest buffer zones. This emphasizes the need for a systemic evaluation of the buffer zones. The project strategy is to design a new resilient path which will raise awareness to the buffer zones and to the rehabilitation of the forest.
The resilient path will connect the settlements around the forest and integrate the buffer zones into a structured system. In case of a fire, the path will function as a buffer, using fire resistant vegetation and connection points for water supply. On ordinary days, the path will be implemented as a hiking trail that will expose its travelers to the
forest restoration process. The restoration will be ecological by promoting a transition into a sustainable forest, and historical by revealing ancient terraces that were once covered deep under the pines.
The path will pass through four observation towers, which were used in the past to detect fires. By walking in the path and through the observation points, the visitors will reconnect to their surrounding landscapes. They will learn about the transformation of the forest- a mosaic of forest formations that creates a resilient system to preserve
our nature from fires.
2nd place: Wanying Peng, MLA Bartlett School of Architecture, member of Landscape Institute with entry “Chromatic riparian decontamination”
The site is close to River Tawe to the north where floods occurred relatively frequently, and the two communities near the site, Caehopkin, and Ystradgynlais, were most affected. More importantly, after a long period of mining, the soil is heavily polluted by heavy metals. In particular, the site has abundant rainfall. The soil pollutants may
penetrate into groundwater through the soil and then slowly flow into river channels, affecting the water source on which people depend for survival. And with global warming, heavy rains and flooding will become more intense, and water pollution from mining will become more frequent. The area is devoid of life due to mining, but outside the mining area is in good ecology. In addition, there are two nature reserves in the northeast and northwest corner of the site, as well as abundant species along the river. In the context of these situations, my project will build a biological hydrological network to reorganize the connection between water and biology at the site. I will use an Acid Mine Drainage Remediation system to realign the flow direction of the site to form a continuous water network, combined with topography and water purification plants, to purify and eventually flow into the mine crater. After the long-term function of my probiotic agent(water) and rewilding, the species in the surrounding environment start to spread. There will also be a rewilding corridor for species, which helps restore the soil quality of the riparian zone. Through the harmonious combination of hydrological network and creatures, rewilding is finally achieved.
3rd place: Marta Szar, member of SAK Poland with entry “Rain Park”
The Rain Park was designed in the place of an ecological wasteland in Cracow. In spite of being surrounded by highly urbanized quarters, the area has varied topography, hydrography and is biologically diverse, which even more emphasizes the natural uniqueness of the place and its natural value.
The main goal of the project was to design the urban park space, which will be the resultant of the recreation area for local visitors and nature mainstay, with wild enclaves that will preserve self-sustainable microsystems. It was important to use the hydrological potential of the site and apply many solutions that would support local retention and turn the area into a “sponge” - a coherent retention system.
A series of urban and landscape analysis were carried out, which allowed the recognition of the conditions affecting the site and matching appropriate design tools.
People’s Choice Award
Batuhan Ünlu, Istanbul Technical University and member of UCTEA Chamber of Landscape Architects Turkey with the entry “Kirkcesme Historic Park”
Kırkçeşme Historic Park is an Urban / Landscape Design project that transformed & resurfaced the 55km long historic Kırkçeşme Water System of Mimar Sinan. The unique water system was built in year 1563 and it consists of Dams, Aqueducts and Pools to transfer water from Belgrade Forest to Historic Peninsula. The aim with transforming water system is to ultimately increase ecological and cultural resiliency of Istanbul, Turkey.
Main Specialities of Kırkçeşme System
1 - Exceptional example of sustainable architecture
2 - Served as the physical connection point between water and publics mind
3 - Acted as a glue for the multicultural mosaic of “Istanbulite” people.
During analysis phase it has been revealed that Istanbul is on the verge of an ecological breaking point for climate change and an irreversible disconnection with its water resources. In line with this crisis, three Main Improvement Goals: Ecological reclamation, Urban memory upgrade, Providing added socio-cultural value.
Methodology
Entire 55km route of Kırkçeşme’s ‘problems / potentials’ are classified and ranked with analytical methods to determine the perfect spot of design intervention.
Balıklı Pool and Balıklı Aqueduct area of Sultangazi has shown the highest potential to implement functions that will serve to the maingoals.
The area was studied holistically with spatial flows in mind, waterflow system, transportation flow, ecosystem flow and landmark patch connectivity.
Project area now serves diverse range of programs for every specification of citizen and became a functioning public area
