The winners of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects’ (AILA) 2019 Victorian Awards have been revealed.
Each year the Victorian Awards aim to celebrate the profession’s impact in shaping the built and natural environment throughout Victoria.
Jury Chair, Mary Papaioannou, said that the Jury was pleased by the number and quality of award entries this year.
“We saw the contribution projects make through delivering public realm that encourages recovery and rehabilitation, inclusivity and engagement.”
“We saw projects located in tertiary education settings that place student life at the heart of the campus experience, and many projects embracing the principles of biophilic design that celebrate the role plants play in the enrichment of human life,” she said.
“There was a strong geographic representation of projects demonstrating that landscape architects’ impact reaches far beyond urban environments.”
President of the Victorian Chapter of the AILA, Adrian Gray, said that landscape architects ensure the complex relationship between people and nature is embedded through the many places that shape the way we live on this planet.
“These awards recognise that great design supports human well-being in our political, academic, health, urban and rural environments. Landscape architects create quality places where people and nature coexist.”
Announced at a cocktail and presentation after-party on Friday 14 June at MAIA, Docklands, the winning projects were divided into 13 categories, ranging from civic landscapes to parks and open spaces.
The 7-member jury evaluated each for design excellence, innovation, context engagement, and social and environmental impact.
This year AILA’s highest honour for projects judged to be the most significant for the advancement of landscape architecture in Victoria, the ‘Landscape Architecture Award of Excellence’, went to 8 incredible projects.
One of those was the Monash University Eastern Precinct Landscape by acclaimed landscape architecture and urban design firm, Taylor Cullity Lethlean.
The Jury were ‘thoroughly impressed’ with the development of rich, multi-layered, Australian temperate forest planting and considered detailed elements along a continuous promenade that helped define a beautiful open space.
“The project successfully deals with scale and sensitivity when thinking about public occupation within a tertiary institution, whilst forming a new character and position within the ‘Bush Campus’,” the Jury said.
The Jury further commended the distribution of a range of opportunities for students to activate without being prescriptive and viewed the project as a high-quality example of sustaining a long-term legacy for campus occupation and amenity.
‘Landscape Architecture Awards’ were also presented to 19 projects.
One winner of a Landscape Architecture Award was Simon Ellis Landscape Architects for their work on the Turner Street Vertical Garden.
The Jury said that the Turner Street Vertical Garden is a great example of low cost small-scale suburban greening project through a complex vertical garden design wrapping a 3-storey dual occupancy terrace.
“The outcome was a modest but beautiful and impactful design that demonstrates thoughtful plant selection with minimal ongoing maintenance,” they commented.
The design’s scalability and duplication opportunities in the context of shrinking garden areas for future urban development projects were areas in the Jury adored.
The winners of the 2019 Victorian AILA Awards are:
Civic Landscape sponsored by Brickworks:
Award of Excellence
- Bendigo Hospital Project by OCULUS Landscape Architecture + Urban Design
Landscape Architecture Award
- Malop Street Green Spine by Outlines
- RMIT New Academic Street by Taylor Cullity Lethlean
- Deakin University: Building HD Courtyard by GHDWoodhead
Community Contribution sponsored by the Built Environment Channel:
Landscape Architecture Award
- Goulburn Valley Health Therapeutic Courtyard by Spiire
Cultural Heritage:
Award of Excellence
- Parliament of Victoria – Member’s Annex Landscapes by Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Landscape Architecture Award
- Mount Buffalo Chalet Gardens Conservation Management Plan by Inspiring Place
Gardens sponsored by Lawn Solutions Australia:
Award of Excellence
- Twig House by Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Landscape Architecture Award
- Bendigo Botanic Gardens – Garden for the Future by Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Infrastructure sponsored by ACO:
Award of Excellence
- Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project by ASPECT Studios
Land Management:
Award of Excellence
- Greening the Pipeline- MOS Pilot Park by GHDWoodhead
Landscape Planning sponsored by Glascott Landscape and Civil:
Landscape Architecture Award
- Woowookarung Regional Park Plan by Site Office
- Streets for People Feasibility Study by Hansen Partnership
- Moonee Ponds Creek Opportunities Plan by McGregor Coxall
Parks & Open Space sponsored by Street Furniture Australia:
Award of Excellence
- Monash University Eastern Precinct Landscape by Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Landscape Architecture Award
- Lewis Park by McGregor Coxall
- Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal – Linear Parks and Djerring Trail by ASPECT Studios
Play Spaces sponsored by LARK Industries:
Landscape Architecture Award
- Bridge Road Regional Playspace by ASPECT Studios
- George Pentland Botanic Gardens playspace by Leaf Design Studio
Research, Policy & Communications:
Award of Excellence
- ReCasting Terra Nullius Blindness by Deakin University
Landscape Architecture Award
- Spiire Inclusive Cities Research Project by Spiire
Small Projects sponsored by Metro Trees:
Award of Excellence
- Doubleground by Openwork and Muir Architecture
Landscape Architecture Award
- Turner Street Vertical Garden by Simon Ellis Landscape Architects
Tourism sponsored by City of Melbourne:
Landscape Architecture Award
- Jackalope Hotel by Taylor Cullity Lethlean
- Pt Leo Estate Sculpture Park by HASSELL
Urban Design sponsored by WE-EF Lighting Australia/NZ:
Landscape Architecture Award
- The Tin Alley Masterplan by HASSELL
- Monash University Western Precinct Landscape by Rush Wright Associates