2023 ASLA Student Awards

The urban structure and public areas of Cerro de Pasco have been permanently harmed by the site's ongoing mining sector expansion. We needed to find new ways to strike a balance between urban development and the lives of its residents because, ironically, the expansion of the mining industry is a source of economic development for the city. The idea was inspired by agriculture, the second-largest industry in Cerro de Pasco. People and the land make a healthy connection through the development

Experienced the opposite settings of fallen trees in Hong Kong (urban city) and deadwood on Observatory Hill (forest) in Charlottesville, acknowledging the misconception of deadwood being perceived as destructive, the project aims to redefine decomposition as a joyful process and refine the general impression people have to deadwood. People are invited to witness the death of trees, to see, to touch, and to engage with this slow, quiet, yet elegant process. The design manipulates landfor

Human activities pose a tremendous threat to the planet's biodiversity. It is crucial to explore how to balance ecology and industry.This project focuses on the critically endangered species of Baer's pochard. We have chosen a typical wetland park in Wuhan, the southernmost breeding ground of the species, situated in an area where traditional agriculture conflicts with nature conservation. We propose a comprehensive strategy to address the needs of various stakeholders, including how to conse

Houselessness is one of the defining crises of our time. The growing houseless crisis has affected 1 in 4 of us directly. As future landscape architects, we must use our unique ecological and cultural viewpoint to address this crisis.  A real-world project, “From Shelter to Home” captures our year of work with Opportunity Village (OVE) a tiny home community for the otherwise houseless.  With community partn

As people suffer from the aftermath of gentrification: homelessness, culture inadequacies, etc., will this be the fate that awaits Long Beach? In response to these concerns, this project proposes a visionary solution: the creation of a new residential neighborhood in Westside South Long Beach. By reconfiguring the existing heavy industrial area, introducing new industries, implementing rent control policies, and creating an efficient material flow cycle, WSLB will experience a transforma

Heat is a major weather-related threat in the US, and neighborhoods with a higher proportion of people of color in New York experience more significant heat-exacerbated mortality, highlighting the impact of environmental racism. Hunts Point, one of the most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods in NYC, where almost half the population lives below the poverty line and lacks green spaces, has a 98% people of color population. Despite hosting the world's largest food distribution industrial park, the neighborhood is also a 'food desert', lacking access to fresh produce. This project envisions urban agriculture as a solution to address the urban heat island effect while simultaneously meeting the need for healthy and fresh food for the local community.

Activated volcanoes, post-disaster reconstruction pressures, and the MIRAB economic model have all increased Tonga's dependence on international aid. The project sees Tonga's reconstruction after the volcanic disaster as an opportunity for sustainable development in the future. Promote environmental and industrial recovery by applying volcanic ash-processed products to cities, farmland, and coastal areas. At the same time, our project accordingly envisages Tonga'

Tacoma has a direct confrontation in flooding risk, cultural division and ecological conflict. Passive open space with rich vegetation coverage offers a sustainable solution to deal with the contradiction. However, 47% of the space acreage is considered a steep slope and another critical factor is invasive plants. With the purpose of mitigating soil erosion caused by coastal seawater erosion, alleviating pollution by waterlogging in inland

This project addresses biodiversity conservation through corridor design, exploring how the strategic application of design tactics at multiple sites and scales can facilitate climate-related movement as species track their ecological niche. The Nature Conservancy has identified “resilient and connected landscapes” across the US. These priority areas for conservation are linkages that could sustain the diversity of a region under a dynamically changing climate. This project examines the large

Rubber duck races, cups of lemonade, fields teeming with peaches, peanuts, and pecans. Life seems a little easier in rural Georgia. When tasked with creating a masterplan for Montezuma, GA, I took to the streets- a relaxed ambling- meeting all of the little details that make Montezuma the warm town that it is. But something was missing. Montezuma needed the tools to care for its own people. This project sought to do that; it analyzes the town’s existing resources, creating a framework of desi

Decommissioning process of small-sized reservoirs in Shenzhen makes these reservoirs highly vulnerable to urban encroachment, leaving a series of ecological and socio-economic issues. “Hydrological Enclaves”is used to highlight three interconnected realities of these reservoirs while also shed light on potential space of intervention. Focusing on a chain of small reservoirs, firstly, this project aims to adapt these soon-to-be decommissioned small-sized reservoirs into dec

Madagascar is renowned for its exceptional biodiversity. However, deforestation in Madagascar has seriously affected the local ecological environment and economic development. From the perspective of sustainable development, we construct ecological network and assess priority areas for forest restoration. Accordingly, we propose different development methods and establish a comprehensive tourism development network based on specific natural environmental conditions and socio-economic factors

Communities are challenged with climate change, habitat loss, and social conflicts resulting in trauma experienced by individuals and held in the land. Traumatizing land use causes physical, ecological, or contextual damage to landscapes. Sites cannot be healed without understanding and rectifying the trauma imposed on the land. This research explores the site elements that are essential to understanding landscape trauma. It also examines how a revelatory site inventory can produce trauma-inf

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world. Utqiagvik, AK is increasingly affected by thawing ice-rich permafrost that destabilizes the environment, infrastructure, and cultural practices. This project highlights the critical role of water—snow, ice, and meltwater—in shaping public space, maintenance, and the future development in Utqiagvik. Born from community engagement, data analysis, and field work, two-site specific designs propose maintenance strategies and ecolo

 As landscape architects we design spaces for people through an assumption of the normative self and experience without taking into account the multiplicity of diverse neurological and sensory experiences.  1 in 44 on the autism spectrum.  This neurodivergence means that the experience of the world most designers are familiar with is not theirs, and therefore, that the world wasn't designed for them.  This research, by pushing new understandings of autism, generating

Landscape architecture professional organizations share the goal of diversifying the profession (American Society of Landscape Architects 2018), but they cannot reach this goal without addressing the causes of outcome disparities within our academic programs. There is no research exploring disparities from the perspective of the profession’s most underrepresented students, Black students. This project collected data from Black students across the United States to investigate how they discover

Therapeutic gardens can provide potential health benefits for the elderly. The Evidence-based Health Design in Landscape Architecture (EBHDL) process model can help deliver stated health outcomes. With the development of artificial intelligence, the growth of computer-aided design can improve the EBHDL process to fill the gaps.

This research project aims to explore how artificial intelligence combined with the EBHDL process model c

This project explores a vernacular technology in the face of climate change, focusing on the efficiency of buried clay pot irrigation systems. These self-regulating systems reduce water use by 90% and promote plant survival during droughts. Leveraging 3D printing and algorithmic design, this project iteratively designs optimal forms considering water distribution, volume, and structural integrity. Computational modeling incorporates micro-climate variations for dynamic clay pot irrigation lay

Combining my interests in public art, social justice, and landscape architecture, Art (that) Works: Design Guidelines for Equitable Public Art is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive guide for artists, designers, and creatives who aim to create and site equitable public art in public space. The guidelines are 213 pages of design considerations, informed by original research, including global interviews with artists and site designers, precedent analyses of interviewees' work, and a literature revie

"Children's Book and Learning Games on Native Plants" are the efforts of us landscape architecture students passing down to younger audiences two crucial things we have learned during our time as university students: plant native, and right plant, right place! By passing down this knowledge earlier in childrens' education, the native ecosystems and habitats of our local environments could drastically change for the better and promote healthier habitats.

Equipped with unique knowledge systems, landscape architects, engineers, and community stakeholders each have a role in considering the future of the Los Angeles River. The Point of Confluence, a game for rethinking how large landscape infrastructure is designed, encourages different stakeholders to speak and play with one another. Rebuilding trust between a municipality and its residents is a long-term process; transparent communication is paramount. Recommendations for the revitalization ef

The Sheepmowers Project is a fun and engaging collaboration that brings sheep to the UC Davis campus to replace lawnmowers. The grazing sheep are the focus of community engagement and wellness activities, shepherded by students while trimming and fertilizing campus lawns. The collaborative group includes faculty, staff, students and the broader Davis/Sacramento community, and aims to be a model for other locations and organizations. Using sheep instead of lawnmowers reduces carbon e

This project site is used as a pass through for the Wolf River Greenway trail as well as a nature teaching site for local schools to mesh education, recreation, and exploration for individuals. Once the masterplan was completed, I designed a field journal for people of all ages to engage and teach them about the natural world they live in. The journal follows the “walk to learn” colored pathway which runs secondary to the existing greenway and provides a prompt for students and adults al

The Caretakers + Placemakers of New Orleans is a zine project focused on the role that hope plays in the landscape architecture discipline. Impactful and inspirational themes came to light through from a series of interviews with community members that place hope and care at the forefront of their work: community, equity, access, resiliency - elements not readily available to all residents of the city. A family of zines – self–published, informational booklets – were made, and distributed acr

Dynamic Roots reimagines Wilmington's Battleship Park, merging innovative design, collaborative work, and a deep reverence for the site's historical and ecological context. Crafted by a trio of diverse design students, the project skillfully integrates various disciplines. Working with park staff and design professionals, the design simultaneously honors the park's heritage and addresses climate change. Dynamic Roots enhances the public space, offering a sustainable, accessible environment th

The project encourages interpersonal interactions so as to build a social community and foster the revival of the communities. By offering the underprivileged equal access to green infrastructures and improving their living environment, this project draws public attention to the declining communities, sparks the confidence in local residents and engages them in the rebuilding of their community environment. In addition, it promotes sustainable development concepts such as rainwater manag