Special Award Winner for Community Impact

Glade of Light wins at 2023 Civic Trust Awards

We are truly honoured and delighted to win both a Civic Trust Award & a Special Community Impact Award for the Glade of Light memorial in Manchester, UK. The judges’ commented about the project;

“A very beautiful, sculptural and emotional place”

“The overall composition is exceptional with the landscaping and planting being a soft and responsive reflection of the existing public realm and surrounding environs.”

“A quiet yet bold installation which is a serene and lasting reminder for Manchester of those killed and affected by the terrorist bomb.”

The special Awards for community impact are presented to an exemplar project that has demonstrated how successful community engagement can help deliver the highest standards of design whilst meeting the needs of local people.

Award level schemes demonstrate excellence in design, whilst being sustainable, accessible and provide a positive civic contribution. Projects that make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the built environment.

Loop Design Award Winners

Image showing active travel right outside the Cunard building

The Strand and Glade of Light win categories for Public Space and Landscape Design

We’re proud to announce that BCA Landscape has won Loop Design Awards for Liverpool’s The Strand and Manchester’s Glade of Light within their respective categories.

The Strand

In the Public Space Category, the Strand won for the human-centric and environmentally conscious remodelling of the epicentre of Liverpool’s renowned waterfront.

The project aims to contribute to the mitigation of climate change risks, increase the resilience to climate change effects, improve health and well-being and improve air quality and biodiversity. This includes planting 130 new trees and Sustainable Drainage Systems [SuDS] with permeable paving and traffic drainage being directed into these living systems and help alleviate flooding in the area. The trees and SuDS are also being future monitored to track their impact on pollution reduction, urban cooling and flood prevention.

Traffic junctions and lanes have been removed to provide new cycling and walking infrastructure to promote active travel and create new people friendly places and designated safer cyclist routes in and out of the city.

The Strand: Category Winner [Loop Design Awards Website]

Glade of Light

The Glade of Light memorial has won in the Landscape Design category, for its design which aimed to embrace a more dynamic and contemporary form of memorialisation. The design ideas and thoughts behind ‘The Glade of Light’ have always come from a place of heart-felt respect and deep sympathy. We believe design is about and for people and it is not a fixed thing on a plan, but consists of an ever-changing, living and shifting series of moments.

We envisioned a wild and beautiful garden that embraces you. A treasured place where you feel connected with nature. A grove of Oak, Birch, Hawthorn and Pine, are gathered together around the quiet glade. Inspired by the colours and wild beauty of the nearby Peak District Heathlands, the planting within the sunny glade of grasses, heathers, bulbs and perennials changes throughout the year. It is a soft and green setting within the busy city, a place for people to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Our wish for this garden is that it will encourage everyone to pause and search for stillness.

The Glade of Light: Category Winner [Loop Design Awards Website]

August 11th 2022August 9th 2023

Glade of Light longlisted

Dezeen Awards 2022 | Landscape Project

We are incredibly honoured and excited to see that out Glade of light project has made it onto the Dezeen Awards 2022 landscape project longlist.

From over 5,400 entries from 90 countries to Dezeen Awards this year, the Glade of Light is one of 26 global landscape projects that are in the running to win an award later this year in the architecture categories.

There is a dedicated page for the project on the Dezeen Awards website:
https://www.dezeen.com/awards/2022/longlists/glade-of-light/

What happens next?

The entry is now with their panel of leading industry figures, who will decide which projects will be included on their shortlists and ultimately the winner in each category. Shortlists will be announced from 5 to 9 September, and winners will be revealed in November.

The Dezeen Awards 2022 public vote will also open in September to allow readers to vote for their favourite projects and studios. This is separate from the main Dezeen Awards judging process, in which entries are assessed by our panel of professional judges.

Take me to The Glade of Light Project

Glade of Light

Design Team: BCA Landscape, Smiling Wolf, Galliford Try, Civic Engineers, Medieval Quarter Masterplan by Planet-IE

Awards: ICE NW Civil Engineering Special Recognition Award Winner, Longlisted – Dezeen Awards 2022, International Loop Design – People’s Choice Awards

It has been an honour to be chosen to help the bereaved families and the wider team imagine and realise this memorial garden. The design ideas and thoughts behind the ‘Glade of Light’ have always come from a place of heart-felt respect and deep sympathy. We believe design is about and for people and it is not a fixed thing on a plan, but consists of an ever-changing, living and shifting series of moments. Our wish for this garden is that it will allow everyone to linger in these moments and search for stillness.

In Japanese culture the language of stillness can be described by a single word – Ma. Designing for Ma is about creating moments of self-awareness and quiet. It can be difficult to find in our busy lives. Ma is the momentary pause in speech needed to convey meaningful words, the silence between the notes….

The process of remembrance and healing is always on-going and needs space, understanding and time. We hope the Glade in some small way can help with this process and it speaks of silence, as opposed to noise and of restraint, as opposed to excess. We sincerely hope it becomes a special place where we can all briefly pause time, find a place of stillness, reflect and dwell a while.

Winner Supreme of The Surface Design Awards

Commended for the 2022 Natural Stone Awards