Adriaan Geuze Winns 2022 IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award

Landezine team congratulates Adriaan Geuze for winning this prestigious award!

Geuze’s firm, West 8, has been continuously designing important projects, from the ingenious Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam, an iconic square masterfully embedded in this architecturally playful harbour city, to Madrid Rio, Maximapark and to the experientially intense Hills of the Governor’s Island.

In the times when the pressing global issues are pushing landscape architecture discipline more and more toward engineering, Geuze’s – ‘engineer meets poet’ – approach to landscape reminds us that there is a vast space in the design process that extends far beyond the utilitarian, beyond engineering. This playful dimension or ‘presence’ is well reflected in the large portfolio of West 8.

West 8 on Landezine

Governor’s Island, © Timothy Schenck

Press:

The jury unanimously agreed that “Adriaan Geuze is one of the most significant landscape architects in the world today.” Through the broad range of built projects worldwide, his firm’s works have achieved a balance of concept and practice that have changed the relationship between cities, nature, and people, and creatively transformed the relationship between urban life and urban ecology. Adriaan Geuze’s outstanding contributions to the promotion of the profession in conceptual and practical respects represent the best values of the IFLA world community.

– from the 2022 IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award jury statement

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

—