Creative landscapes transforming lives

Student Competition

Creative landscapes transforming lives

Background

The transformative power of landscape design in cities has raised the awareness of the value of landscape architecture in creating living environments which satisfy a wide spectrum of the qualities needed for meaningful urban living. 

This student landscape architecture competition aims to achieve the following:

• Generate new ideas about how creative landscape design significantly transforms lives in a variety of ways (directly and / or indirectly)  
• Increase the awareness of the various benefits that innovative and strategic landscape design holds for cities and towns

Assignment:

Identify a problematic area in your city or town (or any city or town of your choice) with rich social and cultural heritage which presents opportunities for transformation. Design the transformation of the area through the creative and strategic application of landscape systems and / or landscape infrastructure for the purpose of not only improving peoples’ lives, but simultaneously maximising the development of cultural identity. The social and visual aspects are of particular note, in the way that service delivery can be utilised as a catalyst for transforming environments into vibrant, meaningful and delightful urban places. 

The design should respond to, embrace or express the following:

• The social and cultural facets of landscape not only reside in the tangible, but to a great degree the intangible.  The comprehensive transformation of lives through landscape systems and / or infrastructural interventions involves understanding the possibilities of the social and cultural effects of such interventions
• Social and cultural phenomena  (as well as strategic, creative landscape interventions)  often require innovation in representation techniques for effective communication (especially to people who are not necessarily designers)
• Regarding existing contextual phenomena, the emphasis should not only be on analysis, but rather the strategic, creative and / or innovative translation into design 
• Economy of means (thrift in design); however not necessarily with the emphasis on minimal intervention, but rather on maximum return on landscape ‘investment’ in a diversity of ways
• Infrastructure provision (service delivery) can be utilised for far more than just meeting people’s basic needs, but with creative and strategic thinking can be a powerful tool for social, economic , ecological and significant visual transformation of places (landscape as an agent for capacity development)
• Strategic, gradual (yet significant) transformation of environments in a world with diminishing available capital and resources is becoming an increasingly appropriate approach (managing the transformation of landscapes towards a more sustainable future)

The specific scale of intervention/s is not specified, however the posters should illustrate the proposed design at conceptual, precinct / district, and detail levels. Decision-making (approaches, principles, strategies etc.) should also be apparent, and not only analysis and product. 

View the following video clip as inspiration for your design! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoFLtHMWssY 

Product format:

The final product when printed at 100% size must comprise of three (3) A1 portrait posters (each measuring exactly 841mm x 594mm). The posters will be displayed next to each other with a 20mm gap between. Entrants must also submit a brief (250 word maximum) summary of the project, for potential use in the jury report or subsequent publications. All submissions must be entirely in English, which is the official language of IFLA.

Awards:

1st PrizeGroup Han Prize for Landscape Architecture - $ 3,500 USD

2nd PrizeIFLA Zvi Miller Prize - $ 2,500 USD

3rd PrizeMerit Award Prize - $ 1,000 USD

Eligibility:

The competition is open to all students of landscape architecture or allied discipline (where a country or university does not include a programme specifically identified as Landscape Architecture). Both individual and group submissions will be accepted, and each student or group is permitted only one entry. Broad interdisciplinary submissions are also welcome; however the design must still focus on the configuration of landscape. The number of members in each participating group shall not exceed five (5). Professional collaborators and associates of members of the jury, and their relatives may not enter the competition.  

Deadlines:

Entries submitted by 31 June 2012

Adjudication 3-4 September 2012

Awards presentation 5-7 September 2012 

Competition rules: 

• Participation in the Competition implies unconditional acceptance of the Competition Rules. 
• All Competition entries are the property of the 49th IFLA World Congress Local Organising Committee. 
• Entries will not be returned to the authors.
• A selection of the works submitted by competition entrants will be placed on exhibition for the duration of the 49th IFLA World Congress, and may be also exhibited elsewhere at the discretion of the local organizing committee, and as approved by the IFLA Chair and IFLA ExCo.
• IFLA retains the right of duplication and publication of any or all materials submitted to the Competition, and there shall be no obligation whatsoever to the entrants, beyond acknowledging the authorship of the works exhibited or published.
• All entrants are absolutely forbidden to have their submissions (or any part thereof) published in any way prior to notification of the jury's final decision.
• The jury shall preside over the competition, and is the sole arbiter at all levels until and including the final awarding of prizes. All decisions of the jury are final.
• All disputes related to the competition that cannot be resolved by the jury shall be settled through arbitration by the 49th IFLA World Congress Local Organising Committee, who shall appoint an arbitration panel to settle any disputes.
• The winner of the Group Han Prize for Landscape Architecture, the Zvi Miller Prize, and the Merit Award shall be announced by the IFLA President upon recommendation of the jury.
• Entrants are forbidden from requesting any information from members of the jury. All inquiries must be directed to the Competition Convenor. However, please be sure to read carefully through the brief and instructions, as all required information should be contained there.

Submission format:

The specifications for the electronic submission format and process will be made available on the 49th IFLA World Congress website (www.ifla1012.com) under ‘Student competition’ at a later date.

Contact information:

Clinton Hindes 

49th IFLA World Congress Local Organising Committee – Student Competition and Scientific Committee

clinton.hindes@uct.ac.za

Click here to download a pdf of the competition brief