Rifat Chadirji Prize 2026: The Right to Landscape

The Rifat Chadirji Prize returns in 2026 with a powerful call for landscape led visions addressing post war recovery, resilience, and environmental justice. This year’s edition focuses on Sahl Al Khiam, a fertile valley in Southern Lebanon whose agricultural, ecological, and cultural significance has endured despite decades of occupation and recurrent bombardment.

As one of the region’s most vital landscapes, Sahl Al Khiam continues to sustain livelihoods, collective memory, and local identity. Though heavily damaged, the valley remains a rare space of continuity and refuge, making it a critical case study for understanding how landscape architecture can operate as both ecological infrastructure and social healing.

RECLAIMING LAND AS A COLLECTIVE RIGHT

At the heart of the 2026 prize is a fundamental question. How can a landscape led recovery vision restore livelihoods, protect ecological systems, and affirm a community’s right to its land after prolonged conflict?

Participants are invited to explore how design can mediate between environmental conservation and economic regeneration, balancing human wellbeing with long term ecological health. Proposals are expected to demonstrate how strategic and sustainable interventions can safeguard the spatial integrity of the valley while enabling future resilience.

Rather than isolated architectural gestures, the competition emphasizes landscape as a living system, one capable of sustaining both nature and society.

FROM VALLEY SCALE VISION TO SPATIAL INTERVENTION

Submissions should articulate a comprehensive vision for Sahl Al Khiam at the valley scale, supported by one or more site specific interventions that illustrate how this vision can be physically realized. These interventions may address water systems, productive agricultural landscapes, or infrastructural frameworks, as long as they reinforce the broader recovery strategy.

The emphasis lies on clarity of thinking, environmental responsibility, and the ability to translate landscape theory into spatial proposals rooted in place.

AN INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM FOR LANDSCAPE AND URBAN THOUGHT

The Rifat Chadirji Prize is open to landscape architects, architects, urban planners, and students from around the world. Individuals, multidisciplinary teams, and studios are encouraged to participate, reflecting the complex and collaborative nature of landscape based recovery.

Beyond recognition, the prize offers a platform for global visibility. Winning and shortlisted projects will be published, exhibited, and presented within the Tamayouz Excellence Award network, contributing to an ongoing international discourse on landscape, conflict, and reconstruction.

LANDSCAPE AS MEMORY, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND FUTURE

More than a design competition, the Rifat Chadirji Prize 2026 positions landscape as a political, ecological, and cultural act. It challenges designers to see land not merely as a resource to be repaired, but as a shared right that sustains lives, identities, and futures.

In Sahl Al Khiam, landscape becomes the medium through which recovery, dignity, and continuity are imagined anew.

Full competition details and registration information are available at https://rifatchadirji.com/

Title: Call for Entries: Rifat Chadirji Prize 2026: The Right to Landscape
Type: Competition Announcement (Ideas)
Organizers: Tamayouz Excellence Award
Registration Deadline: July 30, 2026 06:00 PM
Submission Deadline: July 31, 2026 06:00 PM
Venue: Sahl Al Khiam, Lebanon
Price: Early Registration: $75 from December to end of February 2026 / Standard Registration: $90 from March to end of June / Late Registration: $110 beginning of July until deadline / Student Registration: In support of student participation and experiential learning through competition, student-led teams may register at a discounted rate of $50.