COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on people’s lives and lifestyles and the places where they live. The entries into the Landscape Institute's latest international ideas competition, Transforming the urban landscape, offer a wealth of new thinking about how we design and manage our public realm.

The competition, supported by GreenBlue Urban, Ground Control, Hardscape, Selux, and Vestre, attracted 160 entries from professionals and students in China, Thailand, Israel, Turkey, Denmark, Spain, the UK, and more.

The winner in the professional category is "Back Down to Earth" from Leeds and focuses on the South Parade in Leeds 

‘This is the street where we work – an unremarkable street, full of tarmac and cars. It is exactly this type of street where an environmental revolution could take root – responding to post COVID-19 opportunities and the climate emergency, to radically rethink our urban streets, for the sake of humanity.’

The winner in the student category is "LINK AREA – Flowing Connection After The Pandemic" by Zhouhui Lu, a student at the University of Sheffield, who chose an abandoned space in the centre of his hometown in Beijing. It was designed as an open urban green space that could gradually transition from an artificial to a natural environment by creating new habitats.

The Landscape Institute are promoting the entries to civic leaders around the world as we move toward a greener recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. This approach includes their work in England as part of the UK Government High Streets Task Force.

View all the entries