Finnish State Award for Architecture was awarded to landscape architect Gretel Hemgård
Photo Credit: Maria Miklas
The Finnish State Award for Architecture was awarded to landscape architect Gretel Hemgård!
It’s the first time that the yearly State Award is being granted for a landscape architect. The award was given to Gretel Hemgård for her artistic approach to landscape and long and committed work as a spokesperson and influencer of landscape architecture.
The national arts councils have awarded state prizes in the fields of architecture, cinema, the performing arts, literature, the visual arts, children’s culture, media art, multidisciplinary art, design, music and photographic art. The value of the State Prize for Children’s Culture is 30,000 euros and the State Prize for Multidisciplinary Art 28,000 euros. The value of each of the other state prizes is 14,000 euros. The prizes were awarded by Hanna Kosonen, Minister of Science Culture, at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki on 29 November.
Grounds for awarding the state prize in Architecture
Gretel Hemgård (born 1948) has been involved in artistic work for years as a creator of landscape architecture, both in landscape design and restoration and she has contributed extensively to the landscape perspective and landscape architecture both internationally and domestically.
The objects of Hemgård’s restoration projects include well-known manor and villa parks, Finland's oldest public and institutional parks, botanic gardens and landscapes of high cultural value. Her work emphasizes long-term planning, from historical and plant studies to maintenance management. Many of her projects are the best of their kind in Finland.
Her designs have also created a wide range of architecture, parks, streets, cemeteries, courtyards and landscapes in new urban developments, in which landscape design and architecture are uncompromisingly and intrinsically linked to the architecture while also standing as independent works.
The State Prize for Architecture is awarded by the National Council for Architecture and Design.
Other winners of State Awards can be found here
Gretel Hemgård’s comments in Finnish can be found here