LDA Design’s student bursary returns for the third year

LDA Design’s bursary award scheme aims to support students in what has been another difficult year. They’re awarding five one-year bursaries, worth £1,000 each, to support and encourage landscape architecture or urban design students in the UK, at undergraduate or postgraduate level. Recipients will also be offered paid work experience in one of LDA Design’s eight UK studios. We currently have a winner from 2020 working with us in our Glasgow studio.

Aimed at encouraging greater diversity within the industry, LDA Design intends for one or more of the bursaries to be allocated to students who have faced financial or other challenges in pursuing higher education.

The theme of this year’s competition is the climate emergency. The challenge is to reimagine an existing piece of town or city or conjure up a new piece of city. It might be a network of streets, a square, park or waterfront, or at a larger scale, a neighbourhood or new settlement. How can it better respond to climate breakdown and biodiversity loss and at the same time be more liveable for people? Can climate drive better placemaking? What options do we have to future-proof designs for hotter summers and wet winters? How can we make our high streets and open spaces work much harder for nature? We want students to be ambitious and their spaces multi-faceted.

Submissions can be through illustration (2 x A2 max), or illustration + words (one image + 1,000-word limit), or video (five minutes max). The deadline is midnight on Monday 22 November. Awards will be announced in December.

LDA Design chair, Frazer Osment, says of the scheme:

“Climate breakdown and biodiversity loss mean we must change the way we do things. But we can’t be rabbits in the headlights. We need to collaborate to find solutions and think and work differently, so that people and planet come first.
“The good news is that nature holds many of the solutions. Landscape is the building block of place, capable of managing today’s crises. Landscape-led masterplanning, for example, will find natural ways to promote active travel, connect fragmented green spaces and absorb rainwater run-off.
“So, this challenge is all about focussing minds on making the places where we live, work and play more resilient and innovative. I’d love to see people stepping outside of professional norms and introducing relevant thinking and collaboration from artists, creatives, communities, makers and businesses to take landscape to another level.”

For more details on how to apply check out LDA Design’s site