On September 28, 2021, the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture announced Nina-Marie Lister as the recipient of the 2021 Margolese National Design for Living Prize. On October 22, 2021 at 6:30pm PT, the Margolese Prize will be celebrated with a presentation of Lister’s work and a panel discussion between Lister, design professionals and scholars at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver. For more information, please visit margoleseprize.com or @margoleseprize on Instagram for updates.
Margolese Prize Ceremony
Margolese National Design for Living Prize Ceremony
October 22, 2021 – 6:30pm PDT
Vogue Theatre, 918 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC
Presented by the University of British Columbia School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture
In-person seating and recorded livestream available. Free registration below.
Nina-Marie Lister
Nina-Marie Lister is Professor and Graduate Director at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University (renaming in process), where she founded the Ecological Design Lab, Canada’s first hands-on community-based research incubator focused on applied urban ecology and design. Through the lab, funded by national research and foundation grants, Lister engages, trains, and supports students working directly with professionals and communities to advance research and develop tangible solutions to complex, transdisciplinary problems such as climate resilience, urban biodiversity, and human wellbeing.
She is also the founding principal of PLANDFORM, which engages a wide range of practitioners including ecologists, artists, landscape architects, engineers, and planners in collaborative projects aimed at transforming the way communities think about and interact with natural and built environments.
Margolese National Design for Living Prize
Established through an estate gift to UBC by the late Leonard Herbert Margolese, the annual prize recognizes an inspirational Canadian citizen who engages in design aimed at improving the built environment. Relaunched in 2021 after a three-year hiatus, the prize was reprogrammed by the school to emphasize that in addition to aesthetics, design needs to enhance social, cultural, and ecological well-being.
Lister was selected from over 50 nominations as a remarkable inspiration to the next generation of design practitioners. Her transdisciplinary research and practice involves integrated designs that connect landscapes, people and wildlife. In collaboration with others in a diversity of fields and through a variety of activities, her work is changing the way we think about and address the coexistence of wildlife and people in healthy, connected landscapes. From exploring new structures that facilitate safe passage for wildlife and humans over busy highways, to advocating for natural gardens and native plants in our cities, Lister is influencing the way that landscape architects engage the complexities of ecology in design; her work is shaping new perspectives, strategies and solutions that connect people to nature in cities.
“Nina-Marie Lister’s body of work has never been more relevant than today, in a climate context that requires us to better connect with nature in order to find more sustainable and resilient solutions. Her significant academic work, complemented by a successful design practice that focuses on biophilic design, make her a deserving recipient of the Margolese Prize. This recognition will hopefully contribute to the dissemination of her work and ideas, bring to light our unbalanced relationship with other species and their habitats, and develop sensitive solutions for the future,” states architect and jury member, Tudor Radulescu.
“As a jury, we were above all impressed by Nina-Marie’s ability to design spaces that were both beautiful and that made a difference. Moreover, she does so as part of a larger field of action, building an argument for ecological infrastructure that will make our cities better places to live. From her base in Toronto, she has worked on, argued for and made happen such landscapes. As such, Lister epitomizes the qualities the Margolese National Design for Living Prize was founded to honor,” notes juror, critic, and Director of Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, Aaron Betsky.
