A second win for Reset at the IFLA APR awards

The ever-active rounds of awards that are concentrated on landscape architecture will get another booster in 2026 given the recent announcement by IFLA that it will be launching a Global Landscape Awards programme, promising 20 categories for “the most innovative, impactful, and inspiring projects” from across the full breadth of the landscape architecture profession.

Meanwhile, results from the biennial 2025 IFLA Asia-Pacific Region Landscape Architecture awards held on 15 November in Mumbai have seen Reset Urban Design presented with an Award of Excellence for its mahi on the unbuilt Waitematā Harbour Connections.

Photo supplied by Craig Pocock

Overall a total of 13 Outstanding Awards and 37 Awards of Excellence.were presented along with more than 90 honourable mentions at the IFLA APR gala dinner, attended by Craig Pocock, a Fellow of the NZ Institute of Landscape Architects.

Under Built Projects the stand-out category at the awards was the Culture and Urban Landscape category, which saw 4 Outstanding Award winners, 9 Awards of Excellence and 20 Honourable Mentions. The Parks and Open Space category was equally prominent, with 1 Outstanding Award, 8 Awards of Excellence and 27 Honourable Mentions.

This year Peter Whiting, an associate partner at Boffa Miskell and NZILA Tuia Pito Ora board member, joined the 22 members of the Award Jury, and was a judge across four categories: Residential Built, Lighting and Nightscape Experience, Integrated Architecture, and Streetscape and Planting categories.

Peter described the experience as “enlightening” adding “it would be great to see more entries from NZILA Tuia Pito Ora members in the future”.

He commented that understanding the different social and cultural drivers was the biggest challenge to tackle. “The entries were predominantly from China, South East Asia and India and there were no signs of a recession evident in the built outcomes!

A search of the only available awards database shows that Reset has been the only New Zealand winner in the last two IFLA APR LA Award rounds, while entries from Australia have gained a mix of 7 Awards of Excellence and 7 Honourable Mentions.

Reset also picked up an IFLA APR Award of Excellence in 2023 for work on Wānaka’s lakefront (as reported on by Star News). Both were presented in absentia. In 2017, Sean Burke of Isthmus travelled to Thailand to collect a clutch of awards to bring home for work on both Kopupaka Reserve and Taumanu Reserve.

The IFLA APR awards programme also honours regional luminaries, with four new honourees in 2025:

  • Ms. Xie Xiaoying* - Principal Designer of View Unlimited Landscape Archi-tects of China Urban Con-struction Research & Insti-tute Co., Ltd.

  • Professor Binyi Liu of Tongji University

  • Mr. Chengji Li - known as a pioneer and practitioner in the research of urban ecological corridors in mountain-sea cities.

  • Prof Ming Zhang also of Tonji University, where he is first Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture in China.

*Note: each of these links opens a PDF of an A1 poster-display of significant achievements.

Built Projects

Cultural and Urban Landscape: OUTSTANDING AWARDS

Cultural and Urban Landscape: Awards of Excellence

  • Huanglong Mountain Mining Site Park - Shenzhen L&A Design

  • Reclaiming History: Landscape Reconstruction of Zhengzhou Second Grinding Wheel Factory - Lab D+H Shanghai, Jiaotong University

  • Revitalization of the Japanese Dormitory Park - JIANG JUN FU 1936 - Progressive Environmental Group

  • Huadu District Senior Cadres Activity Center Square, Guangzhou - Guangzhou S.P.I Design

  • Myeongwon Folk Museum: Seoul, South Korea - VIRON

  • “Green Hill,” Zhongguancun International Innovation Center in Beijing - Guangzhou S.P.I Design

  • Restoration, Regeneration and Revitalization Design for the First Dining Hall- College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University

  • Xiwan - Qianhaiwan Underline Space - Shenzhen Long Chase Region Planning & Design

  • Wuxi Xuntang Ancient Town, China - AECOM

Nature Conservation: Outstanding awards

Nature Conservation: Awards of Excellence

  • Yuncheng Salt Lake Ecological Restoration and Landscape Planning Project - Sichuan Provincial Architectural Design and Research Institute

  • Ecological and Therapeutic Hub for the Xili Lake Greenway - Tongji Architectural Design

Residential: Outstanding Awards

Residential: Awards of Excellence

  • Punggol Point Crown - Stephen Caffyn Landscape Design

  • Chengdu Xinchuan Tan Gim - SHUISHI

  • Oasis Afloat: LUXE ISLAND in Haikou, Phase I - Shenzhen L&A Design

  • Gallery 15 (1 Sunken + 5 Garden) - SAMSUNG C&T

  • The Banyan Villa - Kunal Maniar and Associates

  • The Ray - Kunal Maniar and Associates

Parks and Open Space: Outstanding Award

Parks and Open Space: Awards of Excellence

  • Arrounding Dishui Lake 80M Green Belt & Lakeside Avenue - Tongji Architectural Design

  • Shenzhen Bijiashan Sports Park - Guangzhou GVL International Planning & Design

  • Rihui Greenland: The Commoners’ Grove / Revitalizing Community and Nature in Shanghai’s Xuhui District - Lab D+H Shanghai, Jiaotong University

  • From Gutter to Valley: Revitalizing Chengdu’s Open Space Network - Lab D+H Shanghai,

  • Jiaotong University - Elevating Nature Experience / The Guangming Mountain Forest Greenway - SWA Group

  • Sugang Park Renovation Project, Shunde - Guangzhou S.P.I Design

  • Alibaba Xixi Campus - ASPECT Studios

  • Huadi River Ecological Belt Improvement Project - Guangzhou Urban Planning & Design Survey Research Institute

Green Infrastructure: Outstanding Award

Green Infrastructure: Awards of Excellence

  • Cascade-pond System Revitalizing Mountain Village, Liangping, Chongqing - Chongqing University

  • Dr.M.S.Swaminathan Wetland Eco Park - Chennai's Climate Resilient Sponge Park - Sponge Collaborative (Samanea Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.)

  • Green Infrastructure Connecting Towns and Winter Olympics Venues: Planning and Design of Landscape Highways in Zhangjiakou Zone for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games - Beijing Forestry University

  • Yueqing Park: Blue-Green Symbiosis on Shenzhen's Rooftop Water Infrastructure - China Southwest Architecture Design and Research Institute

Skyrise Greenery: outstanding award

Communities: Awards of Excellence

  • Resonating with Railway: Co-Creating Cultural Identity in a Beijing Community - Beijing Forestry University

Unbuilt Projects

Parks and Open Spaces: Outstanding Award

Parks and Open Spaces: Awards of Excellence

  • Vision Valpoi 2041, A Resilient City Master Plan - StudioPOD

  • Sewoon Green - Ecological Urban Core Development Plan - CA Landscape Design

  • Redwood Eden:Preserving Rare Plants, Fostering Human/Nature Harmony - Beijing Forestry University

  • Forming Urban Wetlands System and Bird Habitat Through Parametric Design - AECOM

  • From Urban Park to Park City：The Construction of Garden Scenes in the Nanyuan Area, Beijing - Beijing Forestry University

Commercial and Institutions: Award of Excellence

  • Waitematā Harbour Connections - Reset Urban Design

Sports and Recreational Network: Award of Excellence

  • Shenzhen Longqi Bay: 18 Kilometer Coastal Vitality Corridor - Shenzhen Hope Design

Open Category - Outstanding Awards

Lighting & Night Experience

  • Lighting and Experiential Environment Design for Whirlpool Park, Chengdu - Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning and Design Institute

Real Estate & Show Flats

  • Quehua Peak Scenery, Jinan - Beijing Sunshine Landscape

Open Category - Awards of Excellence

Courtyards & Small Gardens

  • OPUS ONE - TROP: terrains + open space

Environmental Art & Sculpture

  • LACY STEPS - TROP: terrains + open space

  • Lone Tree - Henning Larsen

Integrated Architecture

  • Square Mile - Henderson Land Development Company

Play & Playground Design

Awards, Biennial, IFLA APRStephen Olsen