2019 Landscape Student Prize

Presenting the winners of this year’s Landscape Student Prize.

COMPETITION OVERVIEW

The work being produced in Australia’s landscape architecture schools is at the forefront of pushing boundaries and making new connections in our industry, but much of it does not transcend faculty walls to be seen by a wider community. The Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize identifies and shares the finest graduating projects produced in landscape architecture education across the country. Australian universities each nominate a student based on their end-of-year presentation. The projects are then reviewed by an independent jury, which awards one student the national prize.

JURY COMMENT

The spread of winning projects this year includes a proposal that addresses desertification in the northcentral African country of Chad by reimagining agricultural cycles of farming and grazing as mutually beneficial activities; a scheme that encourages new relationships between humans and animals through an immersive, sensory zoo environment; and a strategy for an inhabitable renewable energy landscape that utilizes local food waste.

In selecting this year’s winner, the jury was particularly struck by the potency and focus of the scope of Revival: Drug Rehabilitation Landscape by Oshadi Jayasinghe of Deakin University. The proposal tackles drug addiction, a difficult issue, not often talked about in landscape practice – and intertwines it with the reclamation of a post-industrial site. Its innovative approach draws attention to the importance of time in both processes.

The project’s presentation evidences many of the skills landscape architects use on a daily basis, with evocative graphics that express a detailed understanding of the site’s unique spatial qualities and how these might encourage stewardship and connection to nature. Revival demonstrates and expands the role that landscape architecture can play in addressing social issues. It is a compelling example of the kinds of thinking that will inspire the discipline’s future development and its role in promoting social sustainability.