On Thursday 15th October, the Irish Landscape Institute (ILI) celebrated the design achievements of its members with an award ceremony that recognised the contribution to the public good of Irish landscape architects.
The awards are bi-annual but what was special this year was that, for the first time, the public were being asked to vote for their favourite design. Tim Austen, ILI Vice-President said before the event “Although our members are designing urban and green spaces across Ireland, their endeavours often go unrecognised. This is partly because we are a small profession but also partly because we are shy, creative types who are not good at shouting about the good work that we are doing!” Hence he saw this year’s awards as a great opportunity to promote the work of ILI Members.
ILI Council Member and awards organiser, Dominick Comerford agreed, saying “The range of projects that are up for the People’s Choice Award, displays the depth of work being undertaken by Irish Landscape Architects.” Dom continued “They are all good this year and so it will be hard for people to choose, but hopefully the projects on display will be inspiring.”
A panel of Irish and international judges, independent of the ILI Membership assessed the projects and handed out a series of awards at the ceremony. Competition was high and the Peoples’ Choice Award was the one award that ILI members were most interested in. As Tim said, “This is the first time we have put ourselves out there for public scrutiny in this way; it is an exciting time for our profession and we want people to know that we are the go-to-people for green and city space design in Ireland.”
The ILI Awards 2015 were kindly supported by: Hardscape Ireland ID2015 (Year of Irish Design) Hartecast Street Furniture, Natureplay, Enrich Environmental, the Goethe Institut, and CEUD Centre for Universal Design.
Hardscape Ireland supplied material to 3 projects that won or were highly commended. These were; Donegal Quay (Public Realm Category); Connswater Community Greenway (Public Realm Category) and Hill of the O’Neills (Castlehill Dungannon in the Conservation Category).
