27/08/2025
Landscape Institute West Midlands completed the judging and awarding of the 2025 John Knight Awards last week at Birmingham City University. It was a very difficult decision as all 8 candidates (4 BA and 4 MA) presented compelling and excellent work. Well done to the winners and nominees! Our two 2025 winners are as follows:
John Knight Award 2025 (BA Landscape Architecture) Winner: Abby Staniland
Abby’s project stood out for its originality, depth, conceptual clarity and relevance. Her reimagining of Dudley Zoo & Castle transforms the site into a narrative landscape — a timeline of UK wildlife told through topography, planting, and spatial experience. She skilfully integrated listed structures, historic routes, and natural habitats into a cohesive and immersive design. Her proposal is not only thought-provoking but also beautifully presented — a bold and compelling vision for the future of conservation spaces.
John Knight Award 2025 (MA Landscape Architecture) Winner: Emma McKinney
Emma’s project presented an exciting, transformative vision for Chatterley Whitfield, an ex-colliery site in Stoke-on-Trent (currently Whitfield Valley Local Nature Reserve), which looked at how green energy production and geo-thermal capture could create a sustainable, eco-friendly leisure destination which would connect the past with the future. She demonstrated an incredible level of detail, provided workings all the way through and thought behind each decision, based upon research and context which was in depth and contemporarily relevant. Vibrant, hand drawn plans and evocative imagery, particularly within storyboards allowed us to imagine exactly what the proposed spaces would feel like. The shifting between drawings and details at different scales constantly reassessed the wider picture before looking at detail.
