World Architecture Festival 2014: Australian firm Taylor Cullity Lethlean has won the World Landscape of the Year prize for the second year in a row for the new National Arboretum on the outskirts of the Australian capital, Canberra (+ slideshow).
Working with architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, Taylor Cullity Lethlean transformed an area of bushfire-damaged land to create a botanical garden displaying a collection of endangered trees and plants.
The garden features two buildings – a pointed pavilion that can be used as a venue for parties and weddings, and a visitor centre with a shallower pitched roof that marks the entrance to the park.
Both the pavilion and the visitor centre overlook a turfed amphitheatre, a series of gardens and a forest that will mature over time. Sculpted terraces and a stream descend down the hillside towards a valley, which contains a dam to provide recycled water to the gardens.
Last year the award went to a botanical garden at a former quarry in Australia, designed by Taylor Cullity Lethlean with plant expert Paul Thompson, which is described by the team as "the first botanical garden purely for Australian native plants".
The prize was awarded as part of the World Architecture Festival in Singapore.
For more on this project, including plans and information from the architects, click here »