Hardscape was extremely proud once again to be the Headline Sponsor of such a prestigious event in the Landscape calendar with the Institute’s first ever online ceremony!

Announced on Thursday 26th November 2020’s winners highlighted landscape’s power to transform the world for the better; retrofitting public green space, reimagining public realm, revitalising high streets, and building resilience and sustainability into our cities and spaces.

People from around the world tuned in to the Landscape Institute’s first ever online Annual Awards ceremony. No stranger to the small screen, presenter Julia Bradbury welcomed attendees setting the scene for a unique virtual afternoon by discussing the delicate balance between people, place and nature and the crucial need to create habitats in which all can flourish.

As a nation, and globally too, we’ve realised the value of the outdoors,’ said Julia. ‘…But there’s a lot of us out there for the planet to support – so we need to use space effectively and efficiently.’

The 21 winning entries celebrated over the course of the afternoon demonstrated the myriad ways in which landscape does just that.

‘It’s been another record year for Awards entries, all of such an exceptional standard – especially in our new categories,’ said LI President Jane Findlay, broadcasting from the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield. ‘The pandemic has really highlighted the vital role that public space, greenery and nature play in our lives. The judges and I saw projects that retrofit our public green space, reimagine our public realm, transform our high streets, and make our cities more resilient to climate change with proper, in-practice sustainability – all such important tasks.’

Mathew Haslam, CEO of Hardscape, gave an inspiring speech commenting:

Mathew Haslam, Managing Director at Hardscape, said: ‘As Headline sponsor, the team at Hardscape feel even more committed to the benefit our support provides to the landscape profession. This year is special, though, because the work needed to deconstruct an in-person event and deliver it digitally means spending more time focused on the meaning of an Awards ceremony, and taking more time to consider our collective relevance and purpose as we celebrate the winning entries today.

We too at Hardscape have deconstructed what we do over the last nine months and are fully committed to providing Landscape Institute members a more diverse range of paving solutions that benefit our world and help us move toward our shared zero carbon ambitions.’

You can view the full speech again here.

Appropriately for a pandemic year, winning projects emphasised recovery in all its forms – from COVID response schemes to hospital gardens; ecological restoration to urban renewal.

Hardscape were once again proud to have been associated with the following winners:

Excellence in Heritage and Culture:

Hillsborough Castle (The Paul Hogarth Company) – Winner

Worsley Delph Heritage Restoration and Environmental Improvements (Salford City Council) – Runner up

Excellence in Horticulture and Planting Design:

The Water Gardens, Hyde Park Estate, London (Refolo Landscape Architects) – Winner

Excellence in Landscape Construction:

The Green Heart, University of Birmingham (Churchman Thornhill Finch) – Winner

Excellence in Landscape Design:

The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, Glasgow (erz Ltd) – Winner

Excellence in Place Regeneration: (Category sponsored by Hardscape and introduced by Hardscape’s Specification Director, Dave Lowe)

DundasHill Landscape and Public Realm Framework in association with Scottish Canals, Glasgow City Region City Deal and igloo (Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture) – Runner up

We were additionally proud also to have made the Awards Trophies again this year at our production facility in the North West. We made each award from a European sandstone called Beige Pirineo which was utilised from a project on Kettering Road, Stamford near Peterborough where we had some surplus material left over. The material was first of all cut to size and then honed slightly to make it a little darker and then impact-etched with the LI Awards logo and a small area for the plaque was sandblasted as a recess to allow for the inlay of some stainless steel which we had, again surplus to a project we are producing for UCLAN. The plaques were then laser-etched with the winners’ details

The Landscape Institute Awards celebrate every year the value of landscape practice in connecting people, place and nature by demonstrating excellence, innovation and creativity in the natural and built environment – let’s look forward to an even more amazing Awards in 2021 and with belief and hope that we can all meet up safely and enjoy the event together!

See the full list and details of the winning schemes here.