IMLA competition winners

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Le Notre Student Competition entitled “The Flower of Life” was won by two students of the International Master of Landscape Architecture (IMLA) in Nürtingen/Weihenstephan: Zuzanna Banaś and Irene Jackson Gil.

The competition involved creating a design for an exhibition garden at the EXPO 2016 in Antalya Turkey, which will take place from the 23rd of April through to October 2016. Bachelor, master and doctoral students in landscape architecture were challenged to design a garden which made use of new flower design concepts and could display how gardens can be simultaneously attractive, instructive and functional for children. Another key emphases of the competition design was to show how gardens can contribute to a higher biodiversity, explain how landscape design principles can contribute to greener cities and to present innovative concepts of hard landscaping and planting design which are sustainable in a Mediterranean context.

Participants were invited to interpret these themes and develop design solutions that integrate them into built form, making them understandable and presentable to the public at large. This international student design competition attracted 34 entries from 19 different countries.

The first prize went to the “beBee pavilion” designed by IMLA students Zuzanna Banaś and Irene Jackson Gil. Their approach addressed the competition's goals in an excellent, understandable and very innovative way. The base concept aimed to show the importance of bees for continuing biodiversity. It also used the bee theme as inspiration for built design which encompassed the architecture of the pavilion, its borders, hard landscaping, planting design and even the plant assortment. Overall it is attractive garden with an underlying concept easily perceived by visitors of all ages, and offering a variety of valuable experiences for children and adults alike. Sustainability was further addressed by using renewable materials and a selection of drought resistant planting. The routing and shading of paths was functional and well detailed.

Our congratulations go to Zuzanna and Irene for their superb achievement and we look forward to seeing the built result in April!

LE:NOTRE Institute Press release International Student Garden Design Competition, EXPO 2016, Antalya - pdf see below