Taktyk wins Topos landscape award

Thierry Kandjee and Sébastien Penfornis, students in the RMIT University 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.

From left, architect and urban designer Sébastien Penfornis and landscape architect Thierry Kandjee.

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 teaching at Versailles.

He addresses, among other things, the relationship between landscape structure and social spaces.

They are both involved in teaching studios at RMIT 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.

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