The World Architecture Festival Awards jury said the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne, Australia www.rbg.vic.gov.au "brilliantly summarize the great variety of Australian flora"?(R)?a strong unifying set of journeys through the
various landscapes."

The Australian garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne, Australia, designed by Taylor Cullity Lethlean www.tcl.net.au with Paul Thompson, has been named "Landscape of the Year' at the prestigious World Architecture Festival Awards for 2013.

The World Architecture Festival Awards are considered the "Olympics of Architecture." The "Landscape of the Year" award was one of three major prizes announced at a gala dinner awards ceremony in Singapore, October 4. The Australian Garden bested competition from a shortlist of nine entries from Thailand, the U.K., Lebanon, Sweden, Australia and China. Professor Tim Entwisle, director and chief executive of the Royal Botanic Gardens, termed the garden the "marriage of our fascinating native flora with innovative and exciting design."

The World Architecture Festival Awards jury noted the garden is a collection of differences, but with a strong unifying set of journeys through the various landscapes. [The garden] "stood out with its originality and strong evocation of Australian identity, without having to use any signs or words"?ujust the beautiful flora of Australia's countryside."

The Royal Botanic Gardens is on land that was formerly a sand quarry. The garden's integrated landscape brings together horticulture, architecture, ecology and art to create the largest botanic garden devoted to Australian flora: 170,000 plants from 1,700 species, all adapted to the challenging Australian landscape, which is mostly desert. The diversity of the plant collection fosters scientific, educational and conservation purposes.

The east side of the garden offers exhibition gardens, display landscapes, research plots and forestry arrays. Natural landscapes and irregular floral forms inspire the west gardens. Water elements also play a large role.