Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize

The award was given on Friday at a ceremony at Barcelona's Palau de la Música. James Corner, whose firm was involved with the south park following the 2012 London Olympics, announced the winner. Mary Margaret Jones, representing Hargreaves Associates, collected the award that comes with a prize of 15,000 Euros. 

The Audience Award was given to Atelier Descombes Rampini's Renaturation of the River Aire in Geneva, Switzerland. The International Prize for University Projects in Schools of Architecture and Landscape was awarded to the University of Virginia.

The Jury for the Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize selected the winner from ten finalists who made their presentations on 29 September, the day before the ceremony. Among the finalists were Superkilen by BIG + Topotek1 + Superflex and Yanweizhou Park by Turenscape.
 
At 110 hectares (270 acres), Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is the largest park created in Europe in more than 150 years. Focused on the renaturation of the banks of the River Lea and the conversion of an abandoned industrial landscape, the park formed the centerpiece of the celebration of the 2012 London Olympics. Hargreaves Associates collaborated on the park's master plan and landscape design with London's LDA Design.
 
The project, as Mary Margaret Jones explained during the ceremony, sought from the start to create a new type of 21st-century park that could be enjoyed for generations after the Games completed. Its design synthesized centuries of British landscape traditions with the latest strategies in sustainability and resiliency.

For the north park, Hargreaves Associates converted the former industrial canal into a naturalized meandering river corridor with lowlands and wetlands, lawns, and sitting areas along the sculpted banks. The south park included themed "Olympic Gardens," made with plants of the countries that participated in the Games. 
 
It is noteworthy that, from the outset, the project included a post-Olympics management plan, which replaced pavement and temporary sports facilities with park programming and recreational facilities catered to the surrounding neighborhoods.

The Rosa Barba International Landscape Award is held every two years, organized jointly by the Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) and the Master of Landscape Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (ETSAB), and sponsored by Bank Sabadell Foundation.