On November 22nd, 36 award-winning works of 16 categories of this year were released in the annual Landscape Institute Awards Ceremony. The LI Awards are presented each year to landscape professionals in recognition of outstanding work. This year the Landscape Institute introduces two new categories.The Dame Sylvia Crowe Award for Outstanding International Contribution to People, Place and Nature, as one of two new categories introduced to LI Awards, is the first time to be open to individuals and organizations globally. Chinese organizations joined the fierce competition and achieved outstanding results, winning three out of four awards in this category. Among them, Rice Garden in Shanghai by a team composed of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University and Xiang-Ju Studio won the award of Highly Commended.
The project of Rice Garden in Shanghai, the only award-winning Chinese rural landscape work of this year, is located in Jianshe Village of Chongming District, Shanghai where there is an experimental rice field established by Ms. CHEN Yuan and Mr. YU Changbin. Dr. DONG Nannan, an associate professor, and YANG Chen, a PhD student, from the Department of Landscape Studies, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University were responsible for the practical teaching of a design course. They built a multi-functional area for various activities by following a rice harvesting style at a temporary site and with local construction techniques. Through close cooperation with Xiang-Ju Studio, Urban Green Creation, and Jianshe Village, the project aimed at promoting interactions between children and families from both urban and rural areas and introducing more resources and opportunities for rural development.
Here is the comment from LI Awards: “An admirable aspect of the project was that it provided a meeting place for different social groups, thereby enriching the project and creating learning opportunities for members of the local community and for professionals”.
