TOPOS LANDSCAPE AWARD

Design PhD candidates, Thierry Kandjee and Sébastien Penfornis, who are candidates in RMIT’s European PhD program hosted by the St Lucas School of Architecture in Ghent, Belgium, have won the prestigious Topos Landscape Architecture and Urban Design Award for 2012.

Thierry Kandjee and Sébastien Penfornis, both 39, are partners in the transnational, multidisciplinary practice Taktyk, and direct a team of 11.

It is the first time that Topos – The International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design – has awarded the Topos Landscape Award to a practice hailing from the French-speaking world.

The award recognises young teams, or individuals, who can demonstrate success and are likely to drive momentum in the development of the profession on an international level.

Sébastien Penfornis is an architect and urban designer and leads their Paris studio. He is also a guest lecturer and conducts research on the topic of serendipity in the process of landscape design.

Thierry Kandjee is a landscape architect, consultant and university lecturer based in Brussels and teaches at Versailles. He addresses, among other things, the relationship between landscape structure and social spaces.

Kandjee and Penfornis are both involved in teaching studios at RMIT University in Melbourne and in Vietnam.

The Topos Landscape Award 2012 was awarded to Taktyk because of the way they exemplify how planning offices can now be connected, and how they must address the major challenges that face urban designers and landscape planners.

Taktyk engages in city making through practice, research, design studio, editing and art installation. Their field of activity is the urban landscape, with its vast variety of challenges.

Taktyk works at the intersection of landscape and urban infrastructure. They see themselves as curators and mediators of complex change processes.

Their projects range from public open space in Lille, France to metropolitan areas such as Brussels, Belgium and Melbourne, Australia.

For more information contact RMIT - Richard Blythe, Head of School, Architecture & Design on 03 9925 3506 or 0418 120 512.

Visit: www.rmit.edu.au

Photo (from left): Architect and urban designer Sébastien Penfornis and landscape architect Thierry Kandjee are running the Paris and Brussels based office Taktyk.