EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART RESEARCH PUBLICATION HIGHLY COMMENDED AT LANDSCAPE INSTITUTE AWARDS
News release posted: Wednesday 26 November 2008

The Research Award in the 2008 Landscape Institute Biennial Awards has been presented to Open Space: People Space, a new publication produced by OPENspace Research Centre at Edinburgh College of Art.



The book, edited by Catharine Ward Thompson and Penny Travlou, offers a range of perspectives on what constitutes good landscape design for socially inclusive space. It provides a rare insight into people's engagement with the outdoor environment; looking at the ways in which the design of spaces and places meets people's needs and desires in the twenty-first century.

In addition to this great accolade for OPENspace Research Centre, the Landscape Institute Awards presented the occasion for the appointment of two new Fellows of the Institute (an Institute by Royal Charter) including John Stuart Murray, Head of the Landscape Architecture School at Edinburgh College of Art.

The Awards themselves also honoured several ECA Landscape Architecture alumni. Bernie Foulkes and Frazer Ozment of LDA Design won the award for Communications and Presentation for their ‘Torbay Mayoral Vision’ and were also commended for their Urban Design and Masterplanning for Aberystwyth. Neil Davidson – another eca alumnus – of J&L Gibbons, was a member of the team that won the President’s Award as the profession’s top scheme and the award for Strategic Landscape Planning for the ‘East London Green Grid’.

Catharine Ward Thompson is Research Professor of Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. Catharine has worked as a landscape architect and as an academic at Edinburgh College of Art since 1981. She was Head of the School of Landscape Architecture at the College from 1989-2000, and in 2001, became Director of the newly founded OPENspace, the research centre for inclusive access to outdoor environments.

The Landscape Institute Awards are presented to encourage and recognise outstanding examples of work by the landscape profession. The Awards aim to bring greater awareness of the best contributions from Landscape Institute members in creating an improved environment.

The awards ceremony took place in London on 20 November 2008 and was hosted by geographer and journalist Nicholas Crane.