ECLAS awards ceremony 2022

At the 2022 ECLAS conference in Ljubljana the ECLAS awards 2022 were handed over to the followeing outstanding colleagues:

– Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award: Simon Bell (nominated by the Estonian University of Life Sciences);

Simon Bell

Simon’s contribution to practice, education and research in landscape architecture and further afield is outstanding, clearly promoting the profession at international level, including through ECLAS and Le:Notre. His publication range is impressive and some of the books have informed teaching the profession.  Since the late 1970s Simon has significantly contributed to the development of forestry engineering and a few years later to landscape architecture. He is an internationally renowned specialist, who has been coordinating important research projects in different European countries.

This award is our recognition of his extensive and impacting work in favour of landscape architecture and of his service contribution to ECLAS (as past-resident and EC member) and initiating the Eastern Baltic Network of Landscape Architecture Schools. Is also in the hope that he will continue to promote education in LA around the world.

– Outstanding Educator Award: Anna Eplényi (nominated by the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences);

Anna Eplényi

Anna is very committed to teaching and has varied experience not only as an educator at the Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, but also extends her international profile as a visiting lecturer at many other higher education institutions. In her home country she has been awarded several titles for her work as teacher and landscape practitioner. There’s evidence of her to be motivating and inspiring students with her work and teaching methods at an undergraduate level and also to relate landscape architecture with school children in collaborative work. Her approaches to use drawing, and particularly models making, to explore landforms and help the students understand topography and work with the topography spatially is very commendable.

– Outstanding Master Student Award: Ségolène Gaillon (nominated by the Ecole de la Nature et du Paysage, Blois)

Ségolène Gaillon

Ségolène shows in depth research competences and the ability of communicate practical solutions in a very artistic way. Her research interest and methods are doubled by her drawing capabilities and add to the value of her projects. Her work is very interesting and demonstrates understanding of the landscape and presents strategies across the scales, which consider a systemic approach to deal with its pressing environmental issues, to transform, create new uses, and manage the landscape and its relationships with its materiality, its people and trades, as well as time, and specially on segregation and change in a small agricultural region in the Southwestern France. Beautiful and well-crafted illustrations support her the work method. She has worked with different schools to make children aware of the landscape and its preservation through commented walks, drawing and model workshops and discoveries of edible aromatic plants.

– Outstanding Master Student Award: Beth Houston (nominated by the Manchester School of Architecture);

Beth Houston

Beth’s journey towards engaging with landscape architecture is extraordinary as a mature and conversion maters student. She is an example of using transferable skills applied to LA to explore and creatively communicate ideas and design proposals. Her work engaging groups of society with landscapes, and the exploration of vegetation systems and agroecological interactions are notorious and these are professionally valued skills. Her interest in the discipline arose from previous work as a community artist which works increasingly addressed the connections between people and place, and she was often involved in working with community groups and schools. As part of a university project she engaged with local farmers, leading to an extremely bold and far-reaching proposal for collaborative agricultural networks. She has had a positive influence in colleagues and also led, supported and collaborated with others in workshops, group tasks, external events and study visits and in many other ways.

Regenerative Landscapes - Designing the Transition
ECLAS Conference 2024 - Call for Abstracts is open until January 31, 2024 Regenerative Landscapes - Designing the Transition Hosted at ULB in Brussels from September 7 - 10, 2024