Founder and Principle of West 8, Adriaan Geuze was announced as the winner of the 2022 IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award in Landscape Architecture, the preeminent award for landscape architects and the highest honour IFLA can bestow. The award was presented by IFLA President, James Hayter, and announced during the 58th IFLA World Congress in Gwangju, Korea on the 31st of August 31, 2022. Adriaan Geuze presented a lecture and attended a press conference as part of the ceremony. The announcement was live-streamed on www.ifla.org
Upon accepting the award, Adriaan recognised the West 8 studio, the clients and communities of the academic field, and the giants of Landscape Architecture.
The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), represents the worldwide profession of landscape architecture. The jury, composed of members from each of the five IFLA regions worldwide, unanimously agreed that “Adriaan Geuze is one of the most significant landscape architects in the world today. His outstanding contributions to the promotion of the profession in conceptual and practical terms as well as his trajectory and extensive work covering different scales and typologies have inspired countless students, teachers, and practitioners worldwide”
The Jellicoe Award recognizes a living landscape architect whose lifetime achievements and contributions have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of society and the environment, and the promotion of the profession of landscape architecture.
The selection was based on the broad range of built projects worldwide, and the outstanding contributions to the profession’s promotion, in both conceptual and practical applications. West 8’s works have achieved a balance of concept and practice that has changed the relationship between cities, nature, and people, creatively transforming the relationship between urban life and urban ecology.
—
“The philosophy of West 8 is deeply rooted in a systemic approach to life sciences compared to narrative: engineer meets poet. This 21st century approach allows West 8 to interweave function, engineering, sustainability, symbolism, expression and both the vulnerability and the euphoria of mass culture. Landscape, infrastructure, nature, and historical legacy coalesce to form vital constituents of our cities. Across all of West 8’s work, the analysis of the unseen logics – ecology, infrastructure, water and soil conditions, building programs and people – has enabled the designs to be at the forefront of sustainability, ecological sensitivity and resiliency. All these designs breath timelessness, local culture, and the desire to occupy, play and explore. Public Space, has become a dominant subject for the field of Landscape Architecture profession, and today demands a proactive attitude: to engineer softscape and shade against the hardscape; to speak out for the public and free spaces against the commercialisation of the urban realm; to veto against traffic dominated streetscapes and to campaign for pedestrian-friendly cities in their place and, above all, create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all user groups to engage.”
– Adriaan Geuze
—
ABOUT THE AWARD
The IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award is the highest honour that the International Federation of Landscape Architects can bestow upon a landscape architect. The Award recognizes a living landscape architect whose lifetime achievements and contributions have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of society and the environment and on the promotion of the profession of landscape architecture. The award is bestowed annually on an academic, public or private practitioner whose work and achievements are respected internationally.
Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe (1910–1996), IFLA President of Honour, served IFLA as its founding President from 1948–54. Jellicoe was also a founding member and later President of the Institute of Landscape Architects (now the Landscape Institute) and was knighted for services to Landscape Architecture in 1979. In 1994, Jellicoe was given the Royal Horticultural Society’s highest award, the Victoria Medal of Honour.
For more information, please see the IFLA’s press release: here
Photography – Jeroen Musch, Timothy Schenck, Nicola Betts, West 8
Header image via Gertjan Jobse, NVTL and IFLA Europe
