Winners of 2023 IFLA Europe Competition for Landscape Architecture Students and Young Professionals ‘Lost Landscapes’
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2023 IFLA Europe Youth competition ‘Lost Landscapes”:
Category A: Conceptual ideas and projects – Winners: Silvia Ielmini and Giulia Scortino, members of AIAPP - Italian Association of Landscape Architecture with the entry ‘Hambach 2.0’ with a total of 80 points.
2nd place: Alexandra Souvatzi, member of Landscape Institute UK, with her entry ‘Oikos of the Pyrocene” with a total of 77 points
3rd place: Ana Pilko and Katarina Poklukar, members of Slovenian Association of Landscape Architecture DKAS with the entry ‘Changing Corrosion’ with a total of 75 points.
Category B: Realised projects - Winner: Miguel Hernández Quintanilla and Marcos Jubierre Zapater, members of Norwegian National Association of Landscape Architecture NLA with the entry ‘Cale Alta’ with a total of 71points.
2nd place: Aleksandra Gierko, member of Polish National Association of Landscape Architecture SAK with the entry ‘‘Cornflowers garden’ with a total of 65 points.
People’s Choice Award goes to “Carb_Lands” with 269 reactions and 164 comments on our Facebook platform.
The winners of Category A and Category B will attend IFLA Europe General Assembly and International Conference hosted by AIAPP Italy, which will take place 13-15 October 2023, in Naples, Italy.
2023 Competition Jury Members
Urszula Forczek-Brataniec, past IFLA Europe Secretary General and Professor at Krakow University of Technology, member of SAK Poland
Prof Ingrid Schegk, Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf · Department of Landscape Architecture Professor
Eszter Bakay, ECLAS, Associate Professor, Institute of Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning and Garden Art and member of HALA Hungary
Hendrik Vanderkamp, Honorary President, ECTP-CEU - European Council of Spatial Planners
Manuel Marti, Hunter Industries
We received 20 entries from across Europe for Category A: Conceptual Ideas and Projects and 2 entries in Category B: Realised Projects. 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.
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.
Some of the comments of the Jury members were:
“Original approach to the problem, an accurate interpretation of the topic, the author’s mission and commitment to the problem attract attention”
“The process-oriented approach and the expected (water) landscape change is very good!”
“What a challenging idea to reclaim ‘lost’ military-used landscapes!”
“Project draws attention with its innovation and clear idea presentation”
“Very current topic of permanent landscape loss and regain.”
“Very good concept of natural forces impact on a local landscape. A dynamic design.”
“Excellent design of a linear landscape in an urban environment.”
On this occasion, Urszula Forczek-Brataniec, IFLA Europe’s Past Secretary General, Professor at the University of Technology and member of SAK Poland wrote:
“We have already held 9 editions of the competition the IFLA Europe Student & Young Professionals Competition. The theme of the competition is related to the subject of the annual IFLA Europe General Assembly and Conference organised together with the National Association.
It allows us to get to know the point of view of students and young aspirants, being a voice in the common discourse.
This year topic The Lost Landscapes covers three areas: inhabited landscapes, production landscapes and crossing landscapes. The young generation of landscape architects interpreted this topic and submitted 22 projects from all over Europe.
In category A, intended for landscape architecture students, 20 applications were received. In category B - realised project intended for young professionals, 2 applications were received. All entries are available on the IFLA Europe website https://iflaeurope.eu/index.php/youth/competition-entries/C62
This year’s competition represents a high level of works that respond in an interesting way to the initiated topic. More than half of the submitted works were of a high level. One third, however, stood out for their maturity and creativity of solutions. What deserves attention is innovation, graphic level and the ability to clearly explain difficult issues. The passion of the young generation and care for our common landscape shine through in the works. These are not just considerations, but specific proposals for solutions worth attention.
The jury gave their evaluation and the votes were divided and spread over different works.
Congratulations to all winners.”
Urszula Forczek-Brataniec
ENTRIES
Category A: Conceptual ideas and projects – Winners: Silvia Ielmini and Giulia Scortino, members of AIAPP - Italian Association of Landscape Architecture with the entry ‘Hambach 2.0’ with a total of 80 points.
Executive Summary: Hambach lignite mine has long symbolized sacrifice for progress and simultaneously the fight against fossil fuels. A new chapter unfolds for this region: according to the mining company’s plans, Hambach will become a huge artificial lake using the waters of the Rhine River, possibly fostering a further ecological disaster. The filling of this huge crater will at least half a century.
The thesis questions the evolution of this giant artificial valley over the decades during flooding, and the feasibility of the flooding itself. The goal is the enhancement of the post-mining landscape as an exceptional habitat that, once mining activities cease, constitutes a unique environment within which a secondary succession takes place.
How to reinterpret the identity of the post-mining territory? Where does its value lie? How to ensure that the transition is aligned with the goals for climate and conservation of resources? How to process the historical stratigraphy present precisely where the very material on which it rested on is absent?
The project includes slope stabilization through ‘strategic’ vegetation, water management and treatment of Acidic Mine Drainage through extensive use of phyto-purification, while creating spaces for landscape contemplation.
‘Endet hier?’ (‘Does it end here?’) art installation highlights Hambach’s exceptional nature, monumental legacy, and the call for alternative energy sources.
A line on the ground in front of the remaining Hambach Forest, not to be crossed again in terms of the destruction of an ecosystem. A monument to failure doomed to failure, inevitably taken over by advancing nature.
2nd place: Alexandra Souvazi, member of Landscape Institute UK, with her entry ‘Oikos of the Pyrocene
Executive Summary: In the past 50 years, severe wildfires have devastated the landscape of Mount Ymittos, posing a threat to the municipalities of Athens that form its boundary. The flames consume its vegetation as well as change the chemistry of its rocky terrain. Soil erosion, debris and floods impact the city due to its scarred condition.
However, in an increasingly warming world, fire should be seen as an ally instead of an enemy.
Contemporary academia challenges our understanding of fire-prone habitats and turns to indigenous fire regimes to draw a new paradigm of coexistence. This study focuses on shaping a pyro-symbiotic future for Central Ymittos by creating a landscape mosaic that is cultivated by fire rotationally, enhancing the habitat’s biodiversity as it allows vegetation to flourish and reproduce.
The existing mountainous route that connects the South municipalities is used as an axis where strategic design choices develop around. Fireproofing the city’s boundary is achieved by hardscaped surfaces with irrigated vegetation, according to international standards. The rich geology of underlying bedrock is used for the creation of materials that fill the space with their texture and color.
Ymittos’ landscape penetrates the public realm, adapting to the needs of surrounding land use to invite people to an everyday escape, and to address the connection between Mount and city. Stewardship of the land is given to local social groups that provide educational and environmental services, in order to develop a new paradigm of forestry maintenance.
3rd place: Ana Pilko and Katarina Poklukar, members of Slovenian Association of Landscape Architecture DKAS with the entry ‘Changing Corrosion’
Executive Summary: In a post-industrial world, many problems arise in a city built around the main aim of production. The project addresses such issues in the urban area of Jesenice, where:
- Fragmented urban structure with a lack of accessible and connective public space fails to support the existing functional centers of the city as well as encourages the use of cars over walking and cycling.
- The connectivity of habitats and diversity of species has been damaged, causing a loss of ecosystem services, lower resilience to climate risks and poorer quality of life.
The site is a lost landscape, located right in the heart of the urban area, between the historic, cultural and administration centers. A functionally linked urban central area, structured not for cars but for connecting people, is needed to improve the quality of living.
Urbanisation processes and metallurgical industry emissions have led to air and soil pollution with critically increased levels of heavy metals in the valley today. This calls for establishment of a green infrastructure system which limits the dispersal of pollutants from their sources, restores habitat connectivity, and helps with adapting to climate change.
The modular design offers possibility to be applied to other locations, to be built in phases, and to create different ambient for diverse types of use. As the products of corrosion stay on the surface and protect it, equally, the history of the site stays apparent in the plan, preserving its character.
Category B: Realised projects - Winner: Miguel Hernández Quintanilla, member of Norwegian National Association of Landscape Architecture NLA with the entry “Calle Alta’
Executive Summary: The project consists in the recovery of a street and viewpoint that was in an almost ruinous state in the municipality of Calaceite, Spain. The town is in an area that suffers severe depopulation, the region has lost almost fifty per cent of its inhabitants in the last century. The project, which is part of the strategies of the municipality to develop sustainable tourism, pays an homage to the specific material culture developed in these limestone landscapes. Half of the materials employed in the construction are recovered in the vicinity of the town and reused in the project. Most of the budget is used to employ local craftsmen in order to promote and renew construction practices in decay. Water runoff, sightlines, planting and historical traces are threaded in a design that aims to highlight the natural, formal and poetic potentials entangled in the site.
2nd place: Aleksandra Gierko, member of Polish National Association of Landscape Architecture SAK with the entry ‘‘Cornflowers garden’
Executive Summary: The garden is part of a landscape route of remembrance of the First World War established by the Art & Jardins association | Hauts-de-France, composed of Gardens of Peace that are dedicated to the volunteers from different countries.
The Polish Garden of Peace has been made near the Monument of Polish volunteers in Neuville-Saint-Vaast, which commemorates the commitment of Polish soldiers alongside the French Army during the Great War. From 1914, there were Polish volunteers who fight with France, and in 1917, the creation of a Polish Army in France was authorised. It was commonly called the Blue Army, because of the blue uniforms worn by soldiers.
The garden is composed of hills and basins. It is a cocoon of greenery and silence with leakage paths opening toward the horizon, with relief punctuations echoing the shape of the caps of the Polish Army. In the centre of the garden are white concrete benches inscribed in different languages ‘never again’. Regarding the vegetation, it evokes the traditional Polish landscape and punctuates the route with symbols: lime trees, emblematic tree of the literary and artistic culture of Poland, cornflowers echoing the colour of the soldiers’ uniforms, and poppies in remembrance of the First World War. The garden thus offers walkers as a narrative and peaceful space, a place of resilience between past, present, and future.
As the garden is placed in the opened landscape, the plantings provide shade during heat waves and support pollinators that are commonly declining in the rural landscape.
Executive Summary:
