An American landscape team has won a design competition to rejuvenate the Latrobe Valley and transition it from a coal mining region into a low-carbon future.

The competition received over 60 entries from 194 people in 14 countries with the first prize consisting of $15,000, there was also a $3,500 for second prize, a $2,500 student prize and certificates for three honourable mentions.

The winning entry was Reassembling Flows from the Parallax Landscape team of Kees Lokman, Yu Ding and Melissa How from Missouri. The runner up was Dirty to Mighty: Brown is the new Green from Daichi Yamashita in Ontario, Canada.

Reassembling Flows from the Parallax Landscape team

Each group had to have at least one architect or landscape architect involved in the design which was judged by a panel of local and international experts including two judges from Harvard and MIT universities in the US.

Local residents are now being asked to comment on the plans.

The three honourable mentions were:

  • Networked Ecologies: Rethinking Remediation from the Studio One team of Mona Ghandi, Carlos Sandoval and Hassan Sazmand from Arizona in the US
  • Hydraulic Network from the Truitt Foug Architects team of William Truitt, Carolyn Foug, Marsha Bowden and Adam Wong from Texas in the US
  • Fields of Synergy from the PUPA team of Justina Muliuolyte and Tadas Jonauskis in the Netherlands.

The student winner was:

  • The 2nd Law from the Explorers team of Carl Hong, Farah Dakkak and Brad Clothier from RMIT.

The honourable student team mention was:

  • Twin Quarries from the DMDR team of Daniela Miller and David Rohr from the University of Edinburgh in the UK.

Studio One's submission Networked Ecologies: Rethinking Remediation