X-Section journal a "worthy addition to bookshelves"

A collaborative publication between landscape architecture students, academics and practitioners has won an excellence award in the Landscape Publication category of the 2019 Resene New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards.  

Aptly named X-Section journal - Collaborate, the 2017 edition showcases the work of over 100 students, 45 local industry partners, 20 academics, 15 international firms and 21 double blind peer reviewed papers.

Judges said the student-led project demonstrated the importance of the voice of youth within the profession, as critics, commentators, and collectors of ideas.

The work of Chantel Clayton, Alexander Luiten, Danyon Robertson and Pip Walls at the Unitec Institute of Technology, the journal’s intention was to develop and promote critical discussion around landscape architecture, from both an academic and professional viewpoint, through the lens of landscape architecture students. 

The 2017 issue was the seventh publication of the journal and the students said they had a very clear and driven approach to what they were looking to produce - “an exceptional academic journal that showcased landscape architecture with an emphasis on how the industry connected with other creative industries.”

The students said they were inundated with submissions from students, academics, landscape architects, architects, engineers and artists. The process and the finished product were both extremely successful, they said.

Judges praised the publication as a “worthy addition to the bookshelves or coffee tables of design-minded people. The Excellence award recognises the substantial effort made by the students and their collaborators to bring this issue together, they said,  and to encourage future publications which build on dialogues about landscape architecture.