The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects has announced a proposal for a series of “disaster-resilient parks” by a team of New Zealand designers as the winner of its This Public Space landscape architecture design competition. The competition invited tertiary students to design inclusive urban “hangouts” and consider forms of escape from the city for a $3000 cash prize.

Aftershock, designed by a team of students from Victoria University Wellington including Alex Prujean, Katie Nguyen and Michael Cook, was unanimously awarded first prize by the jury. The winning scheme proposes a series of parks across Te Aro in Wellington, New Zealand, as places to meet, play and interact with nature, as well as congregate in the event of a disaster. In a post-disaster reconstruction phase, the spaces are intended to serve as catalysts for regeneration.

Part of the 2015 Festival of Landscape Architecture: This Public Life, the competition was devised by the festival’s creative directors in partnership with the Van Alen Institute in New York. It received 77 submissions from across Australia and New Zealand.