URBIS are very delighted to announce that Taikoo Place Open Spaces won the ‘Highly Commended’ accolade in the Landscape Category at the annual World Architectural Festival held in Miami on 12th-14th November 2025. Taikoo Place was one of 12 short-listed Finalists selected from a very large number of landscape projects submitted from around the Globe, the 12 Finalists being located in China (3), India (2), Spain (2), Thailand (3), the UK (1) and Hong Kong (1). Presentations were made by the Finalists to a live Jury on 13th November and the winners announced at the Gala Dinner held on 14th November. Mary Bowman (Gustafson Porter + Bowman) and Sandy Duggie (URBIS) made the presentation for Taikoo Place. Gustafson Porter + Bowman was the Design Landscape Architect for the project and URBIS the Executive Landscape Architect. The project seemed to be well received by the Judges and Mary and Sandy went to the Gala Dinner with high hopes. In the end we just missed out, as the Winner was a large-scale river ecological restoration project in China – ‘Embracing Flood: Xinjiang River Ecological Corridor’ by Turenscape. This win was especially poignant, as noted by Paul Finch when making the announcement, owing to the recent sad death in a plane crash of Kongjian Yu, the founder of Turenscape and a lifelong proponent of Sponge City design. At the same time, Taikoo Place was announced at the Dinner as winner of the ‘Highly Commended’ accolade, effectively placing us second in the world in 2025 – an amazing result and one we gladly accept. During the presentation of the 13th, Mary and Sandy paid tribute to the collaboration between all disciplines in the Design Team and to Swire Properties Limited, the marvellous client whose clear-sighted vision and constant support enabled the realisation of this wonderful project.
