The winner of the Remaking Lost Connections Ideas Competition has been announced.
“Stomping Grounds” was the winning entry, produced by the cross-disciplinary team of landscape architects Jennie Curtis and Barbara Payne, university student Chris Curtis, social scientist Dr Carolyn Hendriks and Lyneham High School students Sophie and Sam Heinsohn.
The entry called on government to work with local communities and empower them to create shared public spaces meaningful to their local needs.
“Stomping Grounds is an idea about letting go, just a little, of the control for our public spaces so that many people including marginalised groups can shape and share what happens in public spaces near them,” says Curtis.
“Stomping Grounds is a big idea about empowering people to get involved in the planning of their own local parks and build stronger communities in Canberra. The idea focuses on giving people the chance to take ownership of the public landscape,” says jury chair Adrian McGregor.
“The whole idea of giving the community the responsibility for their environment is something that could be used across any city in the world.”
The Remaking Lost Connections ideas competition explored the issues of climate change through remaking ‘lost connections’ in Canberra’s cultural, natural and built environments.
“The purpose of this competition was to generate ideas and ramp up the public dialogue on how Canberra can confront the seemingly intractable environmental and social impacts of climate change,” says Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) ACT president Gay Williamson.
“Through the theme of ‘Remaking Lost Connections’ entrants were encouraged to imaginatively retell the Canberra story. There ideas were to inspire new paradigms about the role of the urban landscape in Canberra – I think all of the entrants have done that.”
The competition was a partnership between AILA, the National Capital Authority (NCA), ACT Environment Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) and the City Renewal Authority. The winners will take home $10,000 in prize money and each of the commended projects collecting $2,500.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
