Weitzman Students Earn ASLA Awards for Designs in China, Canada, and Ecuador

Three teams from the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Department of Architecture have been recognized by The American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA) with 2021 student honor awards. Their design proposals address water scarcity at a major port city in China, the relationship between rural locales and bird habitat in Canada, and social inequity in the capital of Ecuador. The awards represent the highest recognition of future landscape architects. 

Youzi Xu (Master of Architecture student), Ziying Huang (MArch‘21)
Faculty Advisors: Muhan Cui, Nicola Saldino, Chen Chen, Ellen Neises
Blue Corridor as Industrial Community Armature: A Resilient Transformation. of Water and Social Network
Category: General Design
The jury said, “This proposal to transform a city’s struggling water systems addresses the social and cultural importance of water and industry in Tianjin, China. It is an interesting take; a lot of times we look at what is left over from industry, but we look less often at the ways those leftovers can be integrated into a public asset.” 

Yaqun Cai (MLA‘19), Szu Hsuan Lee (MLA‘19)
Faculty Advisor: Rebecca Popowsky, Mayur Mehta
“Retreat”: Defining Quadra Island’s Rural Identity
Category: Research
The jury said, “​You can tell that the students worked together on each image; the architecture responds well to the site, and in turn, the site speaks to the architecture. Everything about it is consistent: from the installation components to the landscape of adaptation, to the materials and detailing—it shows they collaborated through the whole process.”

Mingyang Sun (MLA‘21), Siying Xu (MLA‘21), Shiqi Ming (MLA‘21)
Faculty Advisor: David Gouverneur
Landscapes of Inclusion and Connections for Self-Constructed Settlements in Quito, Ecuador
Category: Urban Design
The jury said of this proposal, “This team connects Quito, Ecuador’s urban environment with nearby creek systems at multiple scales, from district maps to infrastructure, buildings, and landscape. These differing perspectives integrate well, and speak to the city’s place and culture.”

Winners each year are chosen by a jury panel representing a broad cross-section of the profession, from the public and private sectors, as well as academia. The 35 winners were chosen from 440 submissions of projects from around the world. Awards categories include: General Design, Urban Design, Residential Design, Analysis & Planning, Communications, Research, Student Collaboration, and Community Service.

The students will be honored at the ASLA 2021 Conference on Landscape Architecture, November 20, in Nashville, Tennessee.