The 2023 Student WLA Awards has a world-class jury to review and acknowledge the best student work in design, research and analysis. Registrations close Thursday, 28 September, 2023 at 11:59PM, Sydney time. This year, the jury includes the following jurors
Afshin Ashari
Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture – School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) – University of Guelph.
Before joining SEDRD, he was engaged in various architectural and landscape architectural projects in Canada and Iran’s public and private sectors.
Taking advantage of his interdisciplinary background in Computer Science and Landscape Architecture, Afshin’s research interests revolve around merging computational design approaches and mixed-reality immersive environments, focusing on exploring the unity of art and technology in landscape architecture and public spaces.
Afshin seeks to push the boundaries of traditional design processes by integrating computational tools and techniques to explore the application of algorithms, generative modeling, data-driven approaches, and interactive immersive environments. This integration aims to streamline the design workflow and generate innovative design alternatives, hoping to avoid analog habits of design and landscape homogenization.
Ed Wall
Professor of Cities and Landscapes – University of Greenwich
Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano
Ed’s work focuses on the intersection of public landscapes, spatial justice, and design experimentation. As Professor of Cities and Landscapes at the University of Greenwich (London, UK), is Academic Lead of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism and Research Lead of the New Centre of Spatial and Digital Ecologies. He is a Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) and, in 2017, was City of Vienna Visiting Professor: Urban culture, public space and the future–urban equity and the global agenda at TU Wien (Vienna, Austria). He has lectured internationally, including at the Architectural Association,
Columbia University, and Beijing Forestry University.
Ed founded Project Studio in 2007. Interdisciplinary projects range from regional plans to curated exhibitions, working with organisations including the Landscape Institute, Architecture Foundation, Arts Council, and Landscape Urbanism Biennale. Projects such as Lubricity, Park Works, Roaming Forest, and the Valley Project have been published in The Guardian, Architects’ Journal, Architectural Design (AD), Building Design, Abitare, Topos, and Arch Daily. They have also been exhibited at the Van Alen Institute, Royal Academy, Building Centre, Garden Museum, Des Moines Art Center, Landscape Urbanism Biennial,
and the Stephen Lawrence Gallery.
Ed has written several books, including Contesting Public Spaces (Routledge 2022). He guest-edited The Landscapists: Redefining Landscape Relations (AD/Wiley 2020), an award-winning project that included curating a public exhibition and hosting a series of international talks. He has also co-edited Urban Space: Routines, Temporalities, and Contestations (Routledge 2022), Landscape Citizenships (Routledge 2021), and Landscape and Agency: Critical Essays (Routledge 2017).
L. Irene Compadre, PLA ASLA
Founding Principal, Design Director – Arbolope Studio
Lecturer – Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis
L. Irene Compadre is the founding principal and design director of Arbolope Studio—an award-winning WMBE landscape architecture, urban design, and public art practice based in St. Louis. Founded in 2015 as an experimental, design-forward, and socially engaged design firm, Arbolope’s goal is to create legible, innovative, sustainable, and deeply impactful landscapes that help make a happier, healthier and more connected world.
Compadre and her team work with various clients, including universities, institutions, and communities, at scales ranging from intimate parks to large-scale urban plans. Working throughout the United States and internationally, they strive to create enduring relationships with the diverse communities that they serve.
Compadre’s multidisciplinary background includes building architecture, fine arts, scenic art, and musical composition. She is a St. Louis Regional Arts Commission Community Arts Training Institute (CAT) Fellow, and earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, where she has been a faculty member since 2012.
Mansi Shah
Founder – Productive Urbanism Collective
Adjunct Assistant Professor at Bachelor of Urban Design, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India
Mansi Shah is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Planning at CEPT University, where she teaches in the Bachelor of Urban Design program. Her areas of interest include landscape design, ecology, food urbanism, and mapping. She has organised several studios and seminars exploring the intersection of landscape and urban design, promoting nature-based solutions aligned with climate and native ecology.
In addition to teaching, she works on her independent research projects on different subjects under ‘Productive Urbanism Collective’ (a research collaborative focused on urban landscapes as productive and performative spaces). She is also involved in the ‘Ahmedabad Mapping Project’ and ‘City Water Walks’ (investigating how urban commons function and are influenced by shifts in governance and development). She has conducted several publications, workshops and exhibitions to explore and disseminate the research.
Her recent book is ‘Rebel Bodies Rebel Cities’ co-authored with Victor Cano-Ciborro, published by CEPT University Press in 2022. The book examines the complexities of urban public spaces and the importance of acknowledging competing stakeholder interests to create more inclusive and equitable environments. She has also co-authored the book ‘Prathaa: Kath-khuni Architecture of Himachal Pradesh’, published in 2012.
Zheng Xiaodi, Ph.D., RLA, ASLA, CHSLA,
Associate Professor and Assistant Dean – Tsinghua University School of Architecture
Vice Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture
Founding Director of the Center for Brownfields Research
Dr. Zheng received her B.Arch. and Ph.D. from Tsinghua University and MLA from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Before returning to China in 2008, she worked with OLIN and SWA Group in USA, and is a Registered Landscape Architect in Pennsylvania. Her current research focuses on brownfields regeneration and sustainable landscape. She is board member of Tsinghua University’s Teaching Advisory Committee, Vice General-Secretary of the Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture (CHSLA), and the General-Secretary of the National Steering Committee of Landscape Architecture
Education in China. She acts as the official delegate of CHSLA at the International Federation of Landscape Architects Asia-Pacific Region (IFLA-APR) council.
She has published in both Chinese and English professional journals, including Topos, Chinese Landscape Architecture, Architectural Journal, Environmental Engineering, and China City Planning Review etc. Besides Tsinghua University, she also taught or gave lectures at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Politecnico di Torino, China Academy of Art, Beijing Forestry University, South China University of Technology etc., and instructed international workshops in the USA, Japan, Italy and Spain. She received CELA President’s Award by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture in 2017 and Tsinghua University’s Excellence in Teaching Annual Award in 2019, and is awarded the Special Award for Excellence in Online Teaching During Epidemic Prevention and Control Period by Tsinghua University in 2020.