General Design Category

Award of Excellence

The Willow Resiliency Project

New Haven, Missouri and Treloar, Missouri, United States
John Whitaker, Associate ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Rod Barnett; Micah Stanek, ASLA
Washington University in St. Louis


The Willow Resiliency Project proposes a biomass industry cooperative between rural communities and repatriated indigenous populations of the Lower Missouri River Valley. Hybridized program of production, research, and recreation expand the typology of rural public space and create opportunity for unconventional interactions between people, ecology, and place. The project calls for establishing an interspecies salix biomass crop within the river’s flood zone, and has integrated aspirations of ecological restoration, knowledge production, regional economic sustainability, and the advancement of social equity. When harvested and burned in a low-oxygen environment, willow cuttings are converted to biochar, a soil ameliorant that sequesters carbon, benefits agricultural crop yields and reduces irrigation demands in silt / sand soil profiles. In acknowledgment of the indigenous practice of utilizing fire for landscape management, the annual fire-rite festival marks the beginning of burn season and celebrates the interdependent nature of landscape and rural culture in the Missouri River Valley.

Honor Awards

Blue Corridor as Industrial Community Armature: A Resilient Transformation of Water and Social Network

Gegu, Tianjin, China
Youzi Xu, Student ASLA; Ziying Huang, Student ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Muhan Cui, ASLA; Nicola Saladino; Chen Chen; Ellen Neises
University of Pennsylvania

Bringing “Wetness” Back into the City

Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona, Spain
Lok Tim Chan, Student ASLA; Eric Zhenrui Mei, Student ASLA; Echo Xingjian Wang, Student ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Maria Goula
Cornell University

Dam(m/n)ed Earth

Owens Valley, California, United States
Jared Edgar McKnight, Associate ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Aroussiak Gabrielian, ASLA
University of Southern California

Laces, Ties and Knots

Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Shanni Jin; Xinyue (Hope) Shen, Student ASLA; Lai Ching Tsui, Student ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Mitch Glass, ASLA
Cornell University

The Interaction Between Masks And Desertification: A Paradigm of Family Sand Control by Mongolian Herdsmen

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Xi Zhao; Xue Li; Xinyu Yang; Qiong Wang, Student International ASLA; Lu Chen
Faculty Advisors: Zheng Li; Linhao Cai; Wei Duan; Xiangrong Wang; Liang Li; Yun Qian
Beijing Forestry University

Wildlife Lives Matter: Hedgehog-Aided Design in Urban Areas

Ipswich, Suffolk, England
Xinyue Wang; Xindi Zhang; Chenyue Zhang; Muwen Qin; Meisi Wang; Shuyu Wei
Faculty Advisors: Jun Zhai
Soochow University

Residential Design Category

Honor Awards

The Death and Life of Water: Improving Water Use in Jaipur, India

Jaipur, India
Chenjie Xiong
Faculty Advisors: María González Aranguren; Pankaj Vir Gupta
University of Virginia

Urban Design Category

Award of Excellence

Landscape Architecture Solutions for Rehousing the Homeless and Optimizing Waste Streams

Los Angeles, California, United States
Chao Zhou, Student International ASLA; Yangjin Jiang, Student International ASLA; Lyuyuan Jia, Student International ASLA; Leixi Qian, Student International ASLA; Kexin Wang, Student International ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Lin Qing; Xiangrong Wang, ASLA
Beijing Forestry University


Skid Row gathers a large number of homeless people, and the tents occupy the entire city blocks. These makeshift shelters for the city's homeless are now an almost permanent fixture of the city's landscape, with piles of waste among them, which leads to a huge negative impact on city appearance, residents' commuting, life security, public health and social relations. The governors have published a series of policies to make the city better, but there are no obvious effects.

The project establishes on-site waste disposal and reuse mechanisms, and builds the future homeland, trying to reuse the waste to create accommodation and reform public environment based on existing one-floor parking lot, wasteland, and surrounding buildings. These strategies respond to the problems of tents occupation and waste dumping ingeniously, which also replies to 'zero waste Los Angeles'. In the meanwhile, it provides homeless people with dwellings and job opportunities, restore regional landscapes, and create a benign cycle of diverse social activities to reshape healthy, balanced and sustainable development for urban landscape and social relations sustainably.

Honor Awards

Green Convergence - Resilient Corridor for Jaipur

Jaipur, India
Chaoming Li, Student ASLA; Xuefei Yang
Faculty Advisors: Maria Gonzalez Aranguren; Pankaj Vir Gupta
University of Virginia

Landscapes of Inclusion and Connections for Self-Constructed Settlements in Quito, Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador
Mingyang Sun, Student ASLA; Siying Xu, Student ASLA; Shiqi Ming
Faculty Advisors: David Gouverneur
University of Pennsylvania

Rebirth of the “Holy Water”: Landscape as a Solution to Regain Clean Water and Revitalize Urban Culture in Varanasi, India

Varanasi, India
Huaize Ye; Nannan Ge; Jing Ren; Guangliang Hu; Yue Zhou
Faculty Advisors: Jun Zhai
Soochow University

Reducing Violence in Spontaneous Settlements: A Public Space Strategy

Caracas, Venezuela
Grace Morazzani Diaz, Student ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Sara Jacobs; Elisa Silva
University of British Columbia

Analysis and Planning Category

Award of Excellence

Paddock Rewilding: An Agri-wilding Scenario for a Regenerative Rural Heritage Landscape in Post-productivist Cambrian Mountains, Wales

Cambrian Mountains, United Kingdom
Shing Chun Chu
Faculty Advisors: Xiaoxuan Lu, ASLA
University of Hong Kong


Does an antidote to our landscape exist to mend the impairment that was orchestrated by us? Under all the challenges of extreme weather, mass extinctions, severe pollutions - Global authorities are pulling out all the stops, desparately, to hopefully evade the ghastly future. 

Rewilding, a novel eco-centric approach that is promoted across disciplines - to introduce pristine wilderness back into humanity and allow open-ended natural processes to regain dominance with minimal human control, this approach flourishes as a result of marginal farmland abandonment across Europe, has meanwhile sparked debate with farmers who live off the culture-saturated land that historically embraces active management, the predicament between production and environment is never resolved.

Paddock Rewilding investigates a middle ground to mediate and create synergies in two conceptually polarised value systems of heritage landscape and rewilding. Inspired by the indigenous pathway of ‘shifting cultivation’, this project examines how larger territories can be elaborated into a ‘permanently impermanent’ rotational scenario between ‘Rewilding’ and ‘Dewilding’, to offer a possible alternative to envision a balancing and sustainable land management typology.

Honor Awards

A New Solution Based On Locust Outbreak

Lodwar, Kenya
Chaoqun Lin, Student ASLA; Zhen Hu; Ying Luo; Shengxu Zhao; Hongchao Xin; Yu Zhang
Faculty Advisors: Joseph Ewan, ASLA; Xiaoming Liu; Weimin Guo
Arizona State University
Beijing Forestry University Jiangnan University

Forest, Human, Fire

Liangshan, Sichuan Province, China
Junyao Ren; Xin Liu; Zifan Wang
Faculty Advisors: Xinqi Zhuang
Huazhong Agricultural University,China

Kingsbury Run Nature Reserve: Collective Re-imagination

Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Lok Tim Chan, Student ASLA; Eric Zhenrui Mei, Student ASLA; Echo Xingjian Wang, Student ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Mitch Glass, ASLA
Cornell University

Return of Land Rights: Land Restoration After Avocado Fever

Cabildo, Chile
Junhui Zhang, Student ASLA; Hanyun Jiang; Yimiao Yao
Faculty Advisors: Xinqi Zhuang
Chongqing University

Run With The Flood: A Symbiosis System of Flood Mitigation and Salmon Habitat Restoration

Tillamook County, Oregon, United States
Mengqing Yu, Student International ASLA; Hui Tang; Xiting Huang; Yuling Song; Chang Liu; Qiaoyun Lu
Faculty Advisors: Jun Zhai
Soochow University

The Death and Life of Great American Barges

Mississippi River Basin, United States
Weicong Huang
Faculty Advisors: Derek Hoeferlin, Associate ASLA
Washington University in St. Louis

Research Category

Award of Excellence

Criminalized For Their Very Existence: The Spatial Politics of Homelessness

Skid Row, Los Angeles, California, United States
Jared Edgar McKnight, Associate ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Katy Foley; Hyunch Sung
University of Southern California


The largest congregate setting of LA County’s 66,000+ unhoused individuals resides in the streets of Skid Row, an ‘unofficial containment zone’ for homelessness. For as long as it takes to deliver a housing solution, unhoused communities will continue to suffer at the hands of our codified systems of regulations, like the LA Municipal Code (LAMC). Enduring discrimination for their very existence, unhoused individuals must navigate the LAPD’s yearly 14,000+ misdemeanor arrests attributed to ‘quality of life’ violations that prohibit sitting, lying, or sleeping on sidewalks (LAMC§41.18), but to identify as LGBTQIA+ and unhoused means to be doubly discriminated against. LGBTQIA+ individuals (and the 40% of unhoused youths who identify as LGBTQIA+) are further oppressed by hate crimes, threats of physical violence, and tensions that encourage many to conceal their own identities in order to access resources, and survive. This research spatializes the LAMC, designing a survival guide for the unhoused to more safely negotiate our civic spaces, and stake a more dignified claim in a landscape that so strictly governs their ability to even exist.

Honor Awards

After Plastics: The Gardens of the Glacial Foreland

Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland
Andreea Vasile-Hoxha, Associate ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Rosalea Monacella
Harvard University

Algae as Agents

South Florida, United States
Aaron Woolverton, Student ASLA
Faculty Advisors: Michael Geffel, ASLA; Jun Hak Lee
University of Oregon

Foreground for Mosses: Designing 3D Printed Clay Bryobricks to Enhance the Built Environment

Eugene, Oregon, United States
Heather R. Tietz, Student ASLA
Faculty Advisors: David Buckley Borden, ASLA
University of Oregon

Communications Category

Award of Excellence

Mud Gallery

Olympia, Washington, United States
Alanna Matteson, Student ASLA; Zoe Kasperzyk; Danielle Dolbow
Faculty Advisors: Ken Yocom, ASLA; Jeff Hou, ASLA
University of Washington


Mud Gallery is the outcome of a year-long group capstone project that celebrates the beauty and life that could return to the waters of the Washington State Capitol with the restoration of the Deschutes Estuary. Currently the biggest obstacles to restoring the Deschutes Estuary are public perceptions of mud and concerns about the odor and appearance of the estuary at low tide. Mud Gallery takes a year’s worth of our own mud-centered art explorations and transforms them into novel community outreach methods designed to engage the public imagination and get people excited about the mud of a restored Deschutes Estuary.

Honor Awards

Be-living: How to Interpret Ecological 'Fangsheng' to Buddhists

Shanghai, China
Yuxiang Dong, Student International ASLA; Ruilin Zhu, Student International ASLA; Ai Liu, Student International ASLA; Shuaiqi Xia, Student International ASLA; Luqiyao Chen
Faculty Advisors: Jie Shen
Tongji University

For the Birds

Champaign, Illinois, United States
Elias Martin; Cate Meersman, Student ASLA; Hailey Malone
Faculty Advisors: Dede Fairchild Ruggles
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Student Collaboration Category

Honor Awards

Humans and Birds in a Cycle — A Sustainable Waste stream and Habitat Network Planning for Aves in Shanghai

Shanghai, China
Shuyu Hou; Linfeng Huang; Ruiyang Li, Student International ASLA; Xiaofeng Zhang
Faculty Advisors: Yufei Ding; Zhicong Zhao; Rui Yang
Tsinghua University
The University of Adelaide Shandong Jianzhu University

Magical Foodscape: A Guidebook for Re-planning the Cities Based on the Culture, Food and the Built Environment

Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan, and Shanghai, China
Mingze Chen, Student International ASLA; Yuxuan Cai; Zheng Yin, Student Affiliate ASLA; Siyi Chen; Yuxi Wang; Yiling Zhang; Junwen Zheng; Lan Yao; Zhi Wang, Student International ASLA; Yue Zhang, Student ASLA; Rui Wang; Shengqian Wang; Muyun Zhu; Jing Pang; Lingzhi Liu
Faculty Advisors: Xiwei Shen, ASLA
Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Retreat: Defining Quadra Island's Rural Identity

Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada
Yaqun Cai; Szu Hsuan Lee
Faculty Advisors: Rebecca Popowsky; Mayur Mehta
University of Pennsylvania

Student Community Service Category

Award of Excellence

A Garden Can Cultivate an Inmate: Reimagining Youth Incarceration

San Luis Obispo, California, United States
Sarah Maloney
Faculty Advisors: David Watts, ASLA
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo


The United States incarcerates more juveniles than any other nation in the world, with nearly 50,000 minors held in detention centers on any given day. This constitutes a mass incarceration crisis which is in dire need of creative reform and interdisciplinary solutions.

Developing effective rehabilitation programs is central in preventing criminal re-offense and providing a path to a better life for millions of affected Americans. A society which truly values its children should value restorative justice over harsh punishment, especially since youth offenders are particularly vulnerable to entering the cycle of adult incarceration.

This research-based landscape architecture project proposes therapeutic gardening curriculum as a strategy for youth rehabilitation. While prison gardens certainly cannot solve all the problems associated with incarceration, they can significantly alleviate mental stress, build valuable skills, and help youth cope with life inside and outside prison. 

Design that stands for unconditional compassion is powerful. Providing access to nature and green space for every member of society is a fundamental goal of landscape architecture, which includes those who commit crime.

Honor Awards

Back to Nature: An Urban Garden that Reconnects Children to Nature and Enhances the Wellbeing of the Community

Guangzhou, Guangdon Province, China
Siyi Feng; Beibei Tao; Zhijun Liu, Student International ASLA; Wanshi Huang; Jiaqi Shi; Jiamei Zhao; Muhua Chen; Junying Feng; Haohua Li; Hongyan Liu; Wenqi Wen; Xieqi Xuan; Jiangtao Li; Zhiming Liu; Zexuan Lin; Zishang Huang; Lu Lu; Jieyu Rao
Faculty Advisors: Hui Tang
South China Agricultural University

Celebrating Memory + Connecting Community + Creating Beauty

Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington, United States
Adrianna Scott, Student ASLA; Kasia Cassidy; Kayla Powlesland, Student ASLA; Ky Nguyen; Laura Keil, Student ASLA; Omar Estrada, Student ASLA; Sidney Greenslate, Student ASLA; Sofia Segebre, Student ASLA; Stephanie Sells; Tyler Poland; Zach Meyers
Faculty Advisors: Daniel Winterbottom, FASLA
University of Washington

Growing with Nature:School Cotton Field for Nature-based Learning

Haidian District, Beijing, China
Xinyue Gong; Xingrun An; Xinxin Chen; Chang Lu; Shifan Liang; Antan Li; Lin Wang; Zekuan Deng; Jiaoyi Xu; Tianyun Lu
Faculty Advisors: Xuesong Xi
China Agricultural University