Eleven Finalists Tapped for the 5th European Landscape Award
Winner to be announced at this fall's European Landscape Biennial; Gary Hilderbrand, FASLA, curates first North American exhibit for the event.

Of the 430 proposals presented this year for consideration for the Rosa Barba European Landscape Award, 11 have been chosen as finalists, with the winner to be announced at this fall’s 5th European Landscape Biennial. The Rosa Barba European Landscape Award was created in 1998 and serves as a highly valued barometer of landscape interventions in Europe.

The European Landscape Biennial, to be held September 25–27, 2008, in Barcelona, Spain,is organized by the Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (master’s program in landscape architecture and the Association of Friends of the PUC), and the Department of Territorial Policy and Public Works (Division of Architecture and Landscape) of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia. As in previous events, experts, professionals, and academics from all over the world who work in landscape will come together for three days to discuss and gauge the current state of landscape design. At the same time, certain activities open to the general public will be held.

This year, North America has been invited to exhibit, with Gary Hilderbrand, FASLA, curating an exhibit based on the theme of “Reciprocities.” Elizabeth K. Meyer, a landscape architect and professor at the University of Virginia, and Ken Smith, ASLA, principal of Ken Smith Landscape Architect in New York City, will participate as commentators and respondents in a day-long symposium on the reciprocities between European and American landscape practice.

 “Coming at the 10-year mark of the Biennial,” Hilderbrand writes, “and in recognition of its increasing influence across Europe and beyond, the introduction of themes from American projects complements and extends the international discussion of landscape as the primary medium of intervention at all scales. For the first time, American works will be exhibited and debated alongside hundreds of European projects submitted in competition for the 5th Rosa Barba Prize.

“Reciprocities reviews a decade of open and invited public competitions in North America: Downsview Park, Fresh Kills, the New York High Line, Orange County Great Park, Los Angeles Cornfields, and Shelby Farms Park. Either by their deliberate framing or by the public debates that grew around them, the competitions collectively demonstrate the centrality of the landscape medium as cities reorganize their resources to tackle vastly needed cultural shifts. Against this spate of ambitious, public displays of interdisciplinary and contested territory, a dozen built landscape works have been identified as possible manifestations of the codes and practices that mark the competition exercises, though some of the projects also sit in distinction to the trends of the large-park-and-infrastructure dialogue.... We include them not as models for Europe but as reciprocals that bring palpable evidence of the landscape’s continued emergence.”

This exposition of North American practice is situated alongside the European projects of the 11 Rosa Barba Prize finalists. These works, all built within the European community within the past five years, will be presented by their designers in an all-day forum on the first day of the Biennial. They include:

Open Space in the Region of Liguria, by Laura Zampieri; Finale Ligure, Savona (Italy). Project for the preservation of a terraced landscape in a forested Mediterranean valley near the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the city of Finale Ligure.

Oranjewoud Estate, by Michael van Gessel; Heerenveer (Netherlands). Project for the recuperation of the Oranjewoud Park. Built by the architect and landscape designer Daniel Marot in the 18th century, this project involves an old abandoned area that had lost its original layout and purpose.

Melaan, by OKRA landscape architects; Mechelen (Belgium). Intervention that makes it possible to revive the urban route of the Melaan River and to strengthen the fluvial characteristics of the city of Mechelen, the basis of the city's industrial development.

König-Heinrich-Platz, by Henri Bava, Michel Hoessler, Olivier Philippe; Duisburg (Germany). Space conceived as a new central urban area in the city of Duisburg. The extensive green area and the longitude of open space, with the Opera building at one extreme, reflect the square's typical characteristics.

Opfikerpark, by Gabriele G. Kiefer; Zurich-Opfikon (Switzerland). Hybrid-park project that is included in a large area undergoing urban transformation, based on clarity, simplification, and its connection to the surrounding area. Located between the Swiss cities of Opfikon and Zurich.

Nicolai, by Kristine Jensen; Kolding (Denmark). Project to transform the old Nicolai education center (1890-1930) in the city of Kolding. This project involves an emerging multidisciplinary cultural space, which brings together activities related to cinema, literature, day care, music, and crafts.

G. Baumgartner Factory Extension AG, by Niklaus Graber, Christoph Steiger, Stefan Koepfli; Hagendorn, Cham (Switzerland). Project to expand a factory that borders on a protected area of significant landscape design interest, which is dominated by large areas of hedges, reed beds, and marshes. The resultant architecture is integrated into the natural environment.

Western Entrance to Mondego Park, by João Ferreira Nunes; Coimbra (Portugal). Intervention that is framed within a project to resurrect a system of urban parks and pedestrian walkways along the Mondego River.

Water Park, byIñaki Alday, Margarita Jover, Christine Dalnoky; Zaragoza (Spain). Intervention that recuperates a landscape on the outskirts of the city of Zaragoza where water is the principal element. The park presents a living system, a route that purifies water from the Ebro River, from irrigation channels, and from the surface for recreational purposes. At the end of the route, the water is recycled for irrigation, and it is returned to the river via seepage pools that are inserted between clusters of palms.

Revitalization of the Aire River, by Julien Descombes + Marco Rampini; Geneva (Switzerland). Landscape design intervention to revitalize the Aire River plain, included in the cantonal river recuperation program to propel the course of water and improve its relation to its surroundings.

Natural Pools of Salinas, Câmara de Lobos, Madeira, by João Gomes da Silva; Madeira (Portugal). Seafront recuperation project that incorporates traditional elements so as to intervene in the landscape in a way that adapts the project to the geomorphic specificities of the island of Madeira.