Fanshawe Landscape Design student, Ben Barocsi, wins TD Environmental Design Competition 2021

Teams of landscape, architecture, urban planning and environmental design students from colleges and universities throughout Ontario converged on Zoom for the sixth annual TD Environmental Design Competition on Saturday, April 17, 2021.

The theme for this year's competition was "Environmental Design response to COVID-19.”

Hosted by Fanshawe's School of Design, the competition challenged student teams to present their creative perspectives in design responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cities around the world are challenged to create healthy, safe and innovative solutions to the pandemic. Changes to the built and natural environment are needed to ensure we can live in a new environment which reduces the risk of disease transmission and allows for social interactions.

This year’s winner from the Fanshawe College’s Landscape Design advanced diploma program is Ben Barocsi for his project “Back to the Land”. This submission is an effort to rejuvenate and revitalize a plot of old farmland on the northern edge of Killaloe, Ontario.

Second place went to a team from Waterloo University, Cho Wong, Dalton Allen, Reham Ebrahim, Tahreem Farooqi and Yomna Eldin, for their project “Re-Shaping Ford City”, preparing a Windsor Ontario community for post-pandemic recovery and adaptation.

Third place went to a Fanshawe College’s Honours Bachelor of Environmental Design and Planning (BEDP) program team, Ben Calderon, Chantal Doyon and Alex Jackman, for their project “Urban Alley”, which responds to recurrent social issues with flexible design in support of social accessibility, economic resilience and low-impact development.

Honourable mention was awarded to the project “resTOp” from Ryerson University students Marienka Bishop-Kovac, Julie Fader, Micha Gutamis, Joseph Peace and Lauren White for their project of modular hubs that reimagine underutilized parking spaces to provide facilities for essential delivery workers.

More than 50 students, adjudicators and members of the public participated in the virtual design competition on Saturday. Trevor McIntrye, a director with IBI Group Toronto, presented a keynote address on how the firm is responding to COVID-19 using examples such as Café TO. The independent professional adjudicators acknowledged all submissions for their innovation and professional presentations.

Fanshawe College and the School of Design gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of TD Bank Group through their generous sponsorship and prize money. The School of Design is looking forward to continuing the tradition by hosting the next TD Environmental Design Competition in the Spring of 2022.

For more information, please visit Fanshawe's media contact page.