ECLAS Awards 2018

The 2018 ECLAS Awards Ceremony was part of the annual conference organized by the University College Gent in Belgium on September 12, 2018. The nominations were announced by immediate past ECLAS president Simon Bell and the just elected new president Ellen Fetzer. Two nominations for Lifetime Achievement Awards were received and approved. The nominees were Professor Branka Aničić from Zagreb University in Croatia and Prof. Dr. Diedrich Bruns from Kassel University in Germany.

Branka Aničić has devoted her entire professional life to the development of landscape architecture in Croatia in all three areas: teaching, research and public service. She played a crucial role in the founding of the first landscape architecture study programmestarting in 1996. She managed successfully to organize this programme as an inter-faculty course which has been very relevant for its success and recognition. ECLAS honors her achievement especially in the light of the challenging political and socio-economic context in which professor Aničić achieved establishing a new landscape architecture programme for the benefit of the society and the outstanding cultural landscape of Croatia. Lifetime achievement awards 2018: Diedrich Bruns, Kassel University, and Branka Aničić, Zagreb University

The second lifetime achievement award was given to Diedrich Bruns. Professor Bruns has successfully accomplished many research projects since 1987, partly as a professional and partly in his role as chair of the landscape planning group at Kassel University. During the past years his research has focused on landscape planning, democracy, participation and the methodology of landscape planning. During his membership in ECLAS he has contributed to the LE:NOTRE Project, the ECLAS doctoral colloquium and the establishment of JoLA. Diedrich Bruns also served as ECLAS president from 2009 – 2012. He contributed substantially to the development of the ECLAS education guide and supported the development of e-lectures and online seminars. 

ECLAS Awards 2018 The outstanding educator award was issued to Ulrich Kias from Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University in Germany. Dr. Kias  was appointed as professor for IT in landscape architecture as early as 1988. Back then, this was the first professorship for landscape informatics in the German-speaking countries. Based on his innovative teaching and research position professor Kias had a substantial influence on the development of IT application in landscape architecture, not only at the university but also in professional practice. Uli Kias also supported digital education a lot by initiating blended learning concepts, by developing a virtual campus for the study programme ‘International Master in Landscape Architecture’  and by supporting the first international online seminars as part of the LE:NOTRE projects.

The picture shows Ulrich Kias to the right with ECLAS president Ellen Fetzer in the middle and Diedrich Bruns to the left.

Holder of the 3rd Cycle Outstanding Student Award is Samaneh Sadat Nickayin. Her dissertation has been conducted in an interdisciplinary field. The main part of her research has been carried out in Italy at La Sapienza University in Rome, with contributions from landscape architecture, urban design, forestry and urban forestry. The peculiarity of her research regards her ability to go beyond the question on the ‘forms of urban forestation’, reversing the point of view on the forms that cities could take in relation to the growing need of forest. Her thesis is titled ‘The Urban Forest at the Age of Urbanisation’.

The 2nd Cycle Outstanding Student Award went to Petra Pečan, landscape architecture master student from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Besides being a very successful student, Ms Pečan has regularly engaged in workshops, projects and competitions, amongst others the LE:NOTRE Student Competition 2018 in Malta/Gozo for which her team has been awarded the first prize. Petra demonstrates a profound understanding of design and society and the potential of their interaction to humanize the urban environment. ECLAS wishes Petra a lot of success for her professional career.Unfortunately, because of lacking nominations, no awards could be announced for an outstanding bachelor student or an outstanding researcher. ECLAS currently invited nominations for the 2019 awards.

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