Celebrating the Future of African Landscape Architecture: The 2025 IFLA Africa Student Competition

The 2025 IFLA Africa Regional Student Competition, held as part of the ILASA / IFLA Africa Conference in Pretoria, shone a bright light on the next generation of African landscape architects, students whose work reflects creativity, critical thinking, and deep sensitivity to Africa’s diverse landscapes and cultures.

This year’s competition invited students to challenge conventional approaches, celebrate contextual diversity, and propose innovative, scalable solutions to the continent’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. Guided by this spirit, the entries presented bold visions for landscapes that nurture, heal, and educate.

The competition’s Gold Award winners, Nakyajja Assumpta (Uganda Martyrs University), Liza Keyter (University of Pretoria), and Micheal Niwagaba (Uganda Martyrs University), stood out for their powerful storytelling, cultural insight, and ecological depth.

L.A.W.N – Living Archive of Wetland Narratives by Nakyajja Assumpta reimagines Uganda’s Nyabukara Wetland as a dynamic landscape for learning and regeneration. Through “unfolding terraces,” the project transforms the wetland from a threatened edge into a space of co-learning, reflection, and stewardship, a living dialogue between people and place that embodies empathy and care.

The Garden of Forgotten Tales by Liza Keyter transports readers to the mythical Pamplemousses Botanical Garden in Mauritius, where art, ecology, and memory intertwine. Framed by the island’s layered botanical history, the design becomes a living reliquary, a poetic space where paradise and extinction coexist, and where plants, myths, and memory converge in one symphony of storytelling through landscape.

Seeds of Stewardship: A Landscape in Decline, a Call to Care by Micheal Niwagaba addresses ecological degradation in Uganda’s Nyabukara Wetland through design education and community empowerment. By introducing practical interventions such as demonstration gardens and briquette-making workshops, the project promotes sustainable livelihoods and ecological regeneration, proving that the landscape itself can be both teacher and catalyst for change.

In the words of the judges, this year’s submissions were “sensitive and passionate”, demonstrating that Africa’s design future is locally grounded, globally relevant, and urgently necessary.

We are also delighted to celebrate the creativity, innovation, and vision demonstrated of the Silver winners.

"Mousa Therapeutic Ecolodge" by Team Esraa Hamdy Ahmed Mohamed (King Salman International University)

"Mauritius as the Spiritual Guide" by Fathima-Zahra Hyder (University of Pretoria)

"Uncharted Paths: A Speculative Horizon in Riebeek Square" by Tshepiso Magketla (University of Cape Town)

"Oasis Market" by Georgina Visser (University of Cape Town)

"Mosaic Grind" by Hape Matheka (University of Cape Town)

"Commons of Care: Reframing Muizenberg’s Coastal Edge" by Nina Brand (University of Cape Town)

"The Generational Loom" by Daniella Anne Aketo (Uganda Martyrs University)

"Common Grounds" by Amos Ogwal (Uganda Martyrs University)

"Establishing an Agro-Touristic Community on the Northern Shores of Lake Qarun" by Kareem Usama (Cairo University)

"Ingxangxasi: Integrating waterwise innovations into the existing landscapes" by Samkelo Tshungu (University of Cape Town)

"The Resilience of Heritage in Landscape: Re-Living the Past in the Future" by Sizwe Mbazima (Tshwane University of Technology)

"A Wetland Education Centre" by Pacific Nakure (Uganda Martyrs University)

"The Eco-Synergy Wetland Commons" by Mildred Nanyange (Uganda Martyrs University)

"Learning link" by Mark Martin Ichat (Uganda Martyrs University)

"Sanctuaria: Reframing Dir Gabal Al Tayr as a Global Touristic Destination" by Yousef El Barmelgy (Cairo University)

And finally, the bronze winners

"Reviving The River: A Sustainable Restoration Project at the Zwartkop Nature Reserve" by Team Mohamed Amin Karani (Tshwane University of Technology)

"Xivandlahina (Our Space): Reclaiming African Identity in the Urban Nature Fabric" by Rose Mongau (University of Pretoria)

"A Climate-Responsive Micro-Public Space Network" by Chwayita Bashman (Tshwane University of Technology)

"Sensory Threads: A journey aiding Learning Through the Landscape" by Charity Mwaka (Uganda Martyrs University)

"Urban Living Room: A place where city meets" by Jyotsana Rawat
(University of Cape Town)

"Kamengo Wetland Education Centre" by Solome Julian Nakazzi (Uganda Martyrs University)

The IFLA Africa community congratulates all participating students, institutions, and partners for their remarkable creativity and commitment to reimagining the African landscape. The future of the profession is in good hands, visionary, rooted, and ready to shape resilient, inclusive futures across the continent.

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