The prize is awarded annually by the Architecture and Design Committee of The Arts Promotion Centre Finland. For the first time, the award was given to a landscape architect’s office. In 2019, the award went to landscape architect Gretel Hemgård.
The design activities of Nomaji Landscape Architects are known for their comprehensive approach to the design of both built and unbuilt environments. Their designs create solutions to the massive challenges of increasing environmental crises, such as urban flooding, nature loss, heat islands and growing social inequality.
The focus of Nomaji’s landscape architecture is on the wellbeing of biodiversity and thereby also the creation of a comfortable and liveable habitat and living environment for people. The creative work of the office combines art, science and social interaction. The merits of its design activity include large-scale projects ranging from park and yard designs to green construction plans for entire cities and workshops for children.
“Actors like Nomaji are needed to nurture hope in society, as well as in the fields of architecture and landscape architecture, and to solve the large-scale environmental problems created by urban planning over the past century.”
– The National Council for Architecture and Design