4th International student competition Landscape Forum 2018 awarded student work of our chair: Future! Envisioning the Eco Island of Gozo in 2050

During the winter term a team of seven students from our chair took part in a planning project "Quo vadis Gozo?" on sustainable landscape development and future perspectives for the Maltesan Island of Gozo in the Mediteranean Sea. During this project we visited the island with our students in November 2018 for field mapping and interviews with local people, adminstration and various other stakeholder.

The developed concept entitled: 

'agridentity - networking for people & landscape - sustainable agriculture for economical profitability landscape conservation & experience connecting locals & tourists'

was submitted to an international student competition and finally awarded.

CONGRATULATIONS!

The fourth international student competition of the LE:NOTRE asked to reflect how future challenges will affect the Island of Gozo over the coming decades. They are then asked to design a vision of how an ideal response to those challenges could be exemplified on Gozo. Based on a holistic understanding of the landscape and its various social and environmental layers, the response should be formulated from a human prespective: How do we want to live in and with the landscape of Gozo in 2050? In total 16 different teams from 8 different countries participated in the student competitions. 

The international jury awarded our student group from for a good understanding of the complexity of the problems and proposed solutions. The work studies and analyses the characteristics of the Gozo landscape from various perspectives and is aware of the specific spatial, ecological, social, cultural and economic factors. The analysis takes current trends, threats and challenges into account. The step from analysis to concept development is clearly structured. Challenges, potentials and threats for the Gozo landscape have been derived from the analysis in a logical and coherent way. Planning and design objectives have been on this basis and are clearly articulated. The concept was clearly linked to the objectives derived from the landscape analysis and evaluation. The concept responds to the local landscape context. The students work considered the three pillars of sustainability (social, environmental, and economic dimension) in the planning and design concept. The work furthermore demonstrates that team worked with the local landscape context and added a new dimension of reflection, design and visioning to Gozo. 

The awarded students were invited to present their work and the participants of the Landscape Forum in Malta in a public session with the Hon. Minister for Gozo.