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How to create a winning Awards submission?

There are numerous local, country and international landscape architecture Awards that are currently open for submissions including the annual WLA Awards. This is a guide on how to create the best submission that may win you a landscape architecture award.

Know the eligibility criteria
All awards have a set of eligibility criteria, it may be years built or designed, size, budget, designer qualifications, membership. You need to know what the criteria are for the awards and the various categories to ensure that you are eligible to enter.

Understand the categories
Most Awards have several categories and these can be built, conceptual, research, communication, or other typologies. You need to know the criteria for each category.

Put the Dates in your calendar
What are the various dates for registration and entering? Do you have enough time to curate the entry? Make sure your team each have the dates in their calendars to make sure you don’t miss the deadline.

Understand the Submission Requirements
Each awards program have submissions requirements including format (template), number of images, number of words, credits, entry numbers, notation of credits(anonymous or noted).

What is the Registration Fee (and extras)?
There are numerous awards programs and some charge and all inclusive fee for the awards. Whereas others can charge an entry fee, award certificate/trophy fee, attendance fee and more. Make sure you understand the full cost of entering.

The WLA Awards have an inclusive entry fee that includes the registration fee and if your project wins you will receive a trophy or certificate.

Write an engaging Narrative / Story
The text provides project insights to the jury members and allows them to gain a great understanding of the project. The introduction should engage the juror to encourage them to continue reading and provide a strong narrative (story) about the project. Avoid writing a description of the design, it should be emotive and engaging. The text should include three key points that make your project unique and award-worthy.

You need to tailor the text to the category. Such as if you are writing for the research category, it is best to have an introduction, methodology and conclusion. However, if the word limit is short then provide a short introduction and a brief conclusion.

Images win Landscape Architecture Awards
Landscape architecture is best represented by good imagery (photography) and is key to ensuring that your entry gets shortlisted. You should have one or two “HERO” images that best represent the project and impress your audience.

The photos should be a diverse range of view compositions and scales. Each photo should tell the juror about the project. This can include a Hero image, wide shots, midrange shots and detail photos to tell the story of the project. There are various ways you can arrange the photos, either as walkthrough, area by area or just focus on the main features. The key is to select the best photos and try not to have similar views of the same focal point.

The images (photos, diagrams, plans) should showcase the project and match the text and vice-versa. There is nothing more frustrating as an editor or juror to read the text and then look through the images to realise that they do not match and the key points in the text is not illustrated in the images.

If you are allowed to have captions make sure to give an indication of where or what the juror is seeing. Try to avoid describing the photo (e.g. path through lawn area), be more evocative (e.g. A meandering path that draws the visitor through the West Woodland.).

WLA Awards allows four pages of images with either single or multiple images per page.

Test various layouts
Make sure to create several layouts with single images or multiple images on a page to test the hero (key) image, image composition, colour tones, contrast, day and night, midrange and detail.

Follow the Submission Format/Requirements to the letter
The award organisers may use an online platform or template that you email or file transfer service (dropbox, wetransfer). The key is to make sure that you follow the requirements for submissions including format, file size, file name, etc. This will make it easier for the organisers and also reduce the chance of your submission not being accepted.

Have fun
Most of all have fun with the process and if you are in an office with few people you can make it a group task with cut out images to create varying mockups of the layouts and this will also allow the team to be proud of their work.

Article Written by Damian Holmes is the Founder and Editor of WLA.
Damian organises the WLA Awards and was a juror on the 2019 ASLA Student Awards.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for educational purposes only. The content is intended only to provide a summary and general overview on matters of interest. It’s not intended to be comprehensive, nor to constitute advice. You should always obtain professional or legal advice, appropriate to your own circumstances, before acting or relying on any of the above content.

How to apply for an internship?

This is a brief guide for submitting your application for a landscape architecture internship. I do not take internships at World Landscape Architecture.

Do your research
The first thing you should do when looking for an internship is to undertake some research about the firms including where they are located, how big is the firm, do they specialise in one typology (public realm, private gardens). This will give you some background and assist you in writing your application.

Know the requirements
Make sure that you meet the internship requirements as the firms will have set these requirements (visa, residency, location, still studying or graduate) based on their past experience and their needs. If you do not meet the requirements then it may be best to apply elsewhere.

When and how long?
Make sure to find out when the internship starts and finishes and the hours (full time/part-time). These are good to know as they might clash with your term dates or other personal plans. The duration is also key as it may be short, which might not be suitable for you to move across the country for a short internship.

Prepare your resume or CV
You need to prepare your resume or CV (find out the difference here) with an easy to read layout and your contact details. Make sure you include skills, interests, education, any working experience and any relevant information.

Stay away from buzz words, skill tags, spend time creating a tailored CV or resume.

Create a Portfolio
Your portfolio gives you the opportunity to showcase your skills, design aesthetic and process. The key term is process. Many portfolios include several finished projects with beautiful renders, diagrams and axonometric thumbnails, but many forget to show the design process. As designers we are always interested in the process and how did you get to the final design? what was the process? what analysis did you undertake? how did you get to the design narrative? what influences(cultural, environmental, etc) impacted on the design?

When putting together a project remember to include a short blurb including what is the type of project? what year were you in? what did you learn from the project? and any other relevant information. Remember to keep it concise.

It is important to include various pieces and types of work to ensure that you show your depth of skill and learning. Go beyond the perspective renders and include sketches, hand drawings, technical drawings and anything else that you undertook during your studies.

Curate your Portfolio
As a student, you will have a limited number of projects to draw on but the key is to include your strongest work at the beginning. Then curate the work to the type of firm. When you apply to a residential landscape architecture firm then place any relevant residential design work at the start or if the firm concentrates on master planning include large scale design.

Tailor your a cover letter/email
Your application needs to stand out from the numerous submissions that they will receive. Go beyond the standard letter template with an introduction, middle and contact details. Make sure to discuss your passion, why you would like to work for the firm, whether you have visited any of their projects, what skills you have, and what you could bring to the internship. Remember to keep it to one page (three paragraphs for email).

Be Creative
Being creative with your portfolio or submission such as a short video or a portfolio in different graphic style (cartoon or freehand or watercolour) can make a difference, just keep in mind the audience and firm you are applying to.

Prepare for your interview
Design firms will likely want to have an interview with you whether in person or via video conference (facetime, skype, etc). Therefore you need to prepare by going over your research (about the firm), reread your resume and practice presenting your portfolio (key points, your role, design process, and what did you learn) prior to the interview. During the interview remember to relax, be yourself and breath.

Tip on what not to do and what to do

What Not to do

  • (Don’t) Bulk email (bcc) every firm with the same template email letter – e.g Dear Sir/Madam. Take the time to tailor your email (see above) for your audience.
  • (Don’t) Include a link to a portfolio (unless expressly requested) as firms do not have the time to wait for websites or document platforms to load and then review. They will most likely prefer a pdf.
  • (Don’t) Regularly Call or Email the firm to ask about your application progress – many firms are busy and may take time to get back to applicants. Regular calls or emails add admin time that they do not have.

What to Do

  • Write with passion
  • Have a professional email address (e.g. johncitizenlandarch@gmail.com)
  • Email a small-sized portfolio (screen resolution) under 10Mb
  • Follow the requirements for the submission (is it to be emailed or submitted through a website or portal)
  • Get someone to proofread and hear your presentation to pick up any mistakes or issues.
  • Do not give up

The process can be hard but don’t be disheartened everyone has to start their career somewhere and it can be through an internship or through a graduate position later.

With internships, you get out of it what you put in, so remember that if you are able to get an internship that it is a two-way learning opportunity which allows you to learn about landscape architecture practice and provides the firm with an opportunity the firm to learn about you and what landscape architecture programs are teaching. Enjoy the experience and feel free to let us know about your experiences as an intern.

Article Written by Damian Holmes and first published at World Landscape Architecture.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for educational purposes only. The content is intended only to provide a summary and general overview on matters of interest. It’s not intended to be comprehensive, nor to constitute advice. You should always obtain professional or legal advice, appropriate to your own circumstances, before acting or relying on any of the above content.

Creating a knowledge culture

Knowledge is key to ensuring that people are learning, growing and engaged in their professional careers. Often organisations leave it to individuals to undertaken training; this only benefits the person and their close group of colleagues. To build a knowledge culture within your landscape architecture firm or organisation, their needs to be opportunities for people to learn and to engage beyond the day to day problem solving and administration.

Knowledge sharing within a profession or organisation offers many benefits, including:

  • increases innovation
  • increased problem solving
  • quicker decision making
  • personal connection with others
  • allows for greater collaboration between small and large groups

Sharing knowledge within an organisation (design firm, school, community group) not only impacts on individuals but also in teams and the organisation with higher engagement and team building.

Investing in knowledge sharing does have a time cost for the team, individuals and organisation; however, the team building and increase in learning and efficiency will often significantly outweigh the time cost.

Knowledge sharing sessions can be hosted internally by a member of the team who is considered an expert or knowledgeable in an interest area (plants, soils, design, software, etc.). Alternatively, you can hire an external expert to present to the group or organisation when the topic is complex or is new to everyone.

There are numerous ways to share knowledge including

  • Group training Session (internal or external hosted) is a simple session with a slide deck and some interactive sessions.
  • Brainstorming session (idea jam, design jam) allows people to get together to discuss ideas freely
  • Bulletin board and chat – often having the ability to ask a question everyone in an organisation can stimulate an informal discussion providing learnings for everyone. However, these can become messy and need curation in a central location for future reference.
  • Hands-on/Prototyping – in the office or out into the field and either using simple materials (paper, card, foam – preferably repurposed waste or recycled) to strategise and develop a solution to a problem.
  • Analysis/P.O.E. – this can be either in the office or out in the field where you undertake a formal or informal post-occupancy evaluation (P.O.E.) of a project.

Tools for knowledge sharing

For a successful session, it is best to set guidelines for the presenter (facilitator) and provide objectives for the attendees. You made need some to moderate (facilitate) the session depending on the session’s objectives and exchange of ideas. Asking for feedback from those who attended the session can be beneficial when planning future courses.

Creating a knowledge culture in your organisation allows for higher growth for everyone and the organisation enabling everyone to gain new skills and share their expertise leading to greater satisfaction in their professional life.

Creating a knowledge culture was written by Damian Holmes, and first published at World Landscape Architecture

DISCLAIMER: This article is for educational purposes only. Links provided in this article are not an endorsement. The content is intended only to provide a summary and general overview on matters of interest. It’s not intended to be comprehensive, nor to constitute advice. You should always obtain professional or legal advice, appropriate to your own circumstances, before acting or relying on any of the above content.

The Australian Bushfires are a warning to the world

Over the past few months, there have been bushfires (wildfires) that have burnt in many states of Australia. These fires have burnt through over 8.4 million hectares (21 million acres; 84,000 square kilometres; 32,000 square miles) including over 2,500 buildings with over 25 people perishing along with an estimated 500 million animals. These fires have come during one of the hottest years on record along with “prolonged and severe drought and very high dryness factors for fuels”. The current fires are expected to take over 8 weeks to be extinguished if we have favourable conditions during the remainder of the Australian summer.

There has been an understandable amount of anger and anxiety towards governments and politicians as people look to deal with the seemingly surreal images and the enormity of the fires during what is normally a celebratory Christmas period. This has been followed in recent days by a great outpouring of charity and kindness towards those fighting the fires and those who have lost their homes and towns, the donations(food & toys) have reached a point were governments and organisations had to request people to stop and only contribute monetary donations.

These fires are a warning to the world that impacts of climate change are occurring as predicted and in some instances faster than anticipated. The Garnaut Climate Review report of 2008 foretold of the current fires providing this grim warning:

Recent projections of fire weather (Lucas et al. 2007) suggest that fire seasons will start earlier, end slightly later, and generally be more intense. This effect increases over time, but should be directly observable by 2020.”

The Garnaut Climate Change Review

The same report also warned “summer recreational activities are also at increasing risk from bushfires and storm and wind events.” and that there would be “increases in air pollution (for example, from bushfire smoke)”.

Australia has had fire events over thousands of years through natural occurrences and through traditional land management by indigenous people. However, due to the increase in people living and farming across the land, we have seen changes in land management that only allows governments to undertake fire management (through controlled or prescribed burning) in certain low-risk conditions with a short time window. It may be time that we greater utilise their knowledge and practices of First Nations (indigenous) people to manage the landscape.

Past Major Bushfires in Australia – National Museum of Australia | Image Credit – Damian Holmes

Governments (local, state and federal) have all pledged to rebuild the towns, farms, tourism facilities and infrastructure. However, there are some hard and controversial decisions that will need to be made in the coming weeks, months and years regarding the planning, development and management of the landscape.

North Coast NSW | Image Credit Ash Hogan

The involvement of landscape architects will be key and many architects, landscape architects and other design professionals have pledged support and services for rebuilding communities through organisations such as Architects Assist. Organisations such as the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) have also stated that they will “In the coming weeks we will look to coordinate a service to connect those [AILA] members looking to offer their services to communities.”

As landscape architects, we need to also continue to advocate for change at all levels of government and use our landscape organisations to change policy to deal with the threat of climate change. AILA President Shaun Walsh announced today that “AILA will also continue advocating to government about the climate and biodiversity emergency as we call for immediate and significant funding and policy action.” also directed members to AILA’s Bushfire Position Statement.

The world, its people and governments need to heed the advice that has been provided by scientists, academics, organisations and public that climate change is real and the impacts are only being exacerbated by ongoing debate and inaction. We all need to participate in the conversation and advocate for action on climate change. Please contact your local landscape architecture organisation to see how they are advocating on behalf of members and how you can participate.

This article was originally published on World Landscape Architecture on January 7, 2020

Square or Park?

This week the International Landscape Architecture Festival kicks off in Melbourne Australia. The theme of the conference is The Square and The Park. The festival curators see it as a contentious issue between these two landscape typologies which dominate our cities that haven’t changed in the past hundred years.

Klyde Warren Park – Office of James Burnett  | (Image Credit: Thomas McConnell)

Many cities across the world are grappling with the decision of whether they create a square or a park. Which one does the community need? What will be best in the long term for the city? Many parks and squares have been resilient to our ever-changing cities, providing open space for citizens but they offer different benefits.

SQUARES
Perceived by the public as a civic space with hard surfaces one or more open sides as a forecourt to a major building (Trafalgar Square in front of The National Gallery) or closed central plaza with active edges of retail, restaurants and a church or town hall (Piazza San Marco).

Kungsbacka Square – White arkitekter (Image Credit: Per Kårehed)
Grote Markt – OMGEVING (Image Credit: Hannelore Veelaert, OMGEVING)

There are many squares across the world from the small squares in Italy and town squares of the USA (often under 1000 square metres/10,000 square feet) to the large squares of Moscow, Beijing, Madrid which are often in the hundreds of thousands of square metres (millions of square feet). They serve a variety of purposes from central squares, markets squares with a few hundred people up to parade squares with thousands of people. Squares are gathering spaces that are often in a highly urban context with large areas of hardscape that also for a multitude of program and placemaking. Although they can also be very stifling in summer and cold in winter. Squares are often seen as places of activity and commerce allowing for various groups to gather and congregate to shop, dine, people watch and enjoy the life of the city.

The Piece Hall – Gillespies (Image Credit: Paul White)
Victoria Square – Hansen Partnership (Image Credit: Andrew Lloyd)

PARKS
Parks are often seen as soft spaces that create green lungs for the city offering an urban forest with large expanses of planting and grass for the public to seek respite from the hustle and bustle and heat of the city. A place that can be passive and allow people to relax, but also engage in various activities (active and passive sports) that often could be seen to be out of place in a square (or often banned in the square).

Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park â€“ LANDPROCESS | (Image courtesy of LANDPROCESS)
ZilArt Park – !melk| (Images courtesy of !melk)

SQUARE OR PARK
The conundrum that city planners, urban designers and the public often faces is do we need a square or a park? This question has become more fraught and tenuous as the density of cities has increased at the same time that open space and the urban forest have been lost.  

Leicester Square City Quarter – Burns + Nice | (Image Credit Burns + Nice)

The answer is not always clear as cities endeavour to strike a balance between civic and environmental needs of the community. The most important element is understanding the site context to determine the best use of the place. Often in highly urban environments, a central park may not be the answer due to the micro-climate (orientation, shading, scale, available space) whereas a plaza may be more suited due to the ability to create a multiuse area with active building edges. Whereas, an open plot in medium-density family housing lends itself to a park with a variety of uses and able to serve a wider demographic.

Cities have also recently built hybrids typologies with a park in a square or square in a park that incorporates hard and soft spaces (a periphery or central green or a square with a small area of green) which allow for a variety of passive and active programming. These squares also integrate water sensitive urban design such as Water Square which allows for water retention and storage during rain events.   

Water Square – De Urbanisten | Image Credit: De Urbanisten
Yagan Square – ASPECT Studios (Image Credit: Peter Bennetts)
Berczy Park – Claude Cormier + associés | (image Credit: Industryous Photography)

Having a discourse about these hybrid spaces is often hard as they are not often clearly called a park or square with squares called parks and parks are called squares. In the end, is it of consequence? or is it all academic and the true value of the space is that a successful space is created that suits the community needs who have taken ownership of space and enjoy to the full.

Warrior Square Gardens | (Photograph Copyright: Colin Philp)
Warrior Square Gardens | (Photograph Copyright: Colin Philp)
Dilworth Park | (Image Credit | James Ewing / OTTO)
Dilworth Park | (Image Credit | OLIN / Sahar Coston Hardy )

The key is to design a successful central place for the community is to ensure that it responds to the context of the surrounding environment and provides a place for the community to thrive. Any park, square or hybrid must be resilient and allow for repurposing for future uses and communities with little rework and expenditure.

First published on World Landscape Architecture