The University of Tehran claimed first place in the Honor Awards category at the 2025 Global Landscape Architecture Award, an international competition that brought together 161 university teams from 30 countries.
This achievement marks the first time a team from Iran and the broader Middle East has secured this distinction. The University of Tehran team—Reza Farhadi, Maryam Norouzi, Amir Rahsaz, Hengameh Ghasemi, and Mahshid Del-Avar, specializing in urban planning, environmental design, and landscape planning—participated under the supervision of faculty members Hossein Mansourian and Keramatollah Ziari from the Faculty of Geography, with Dr. Aleksandra Dulic from the University of British Columbia serving as international co-advisor. Their project, titled “Symbiotic Landscapes: When Ecology Meets Fire,” was the result of this collaborative effort.
The project addressed the planning and redesign of forests in the Greater California region following the severe wildfires of January 2025 in the United States. It was commended by the judging panel for its forward-thinking and globally applicable strategies, as well as its strong interdisciplinary approach.
The University of Tehran team has an impressive record in global competitions, having previously earned first place and the Excellence Award at the 2024 ASLA International Landscape Architecture Olympiad in the United States, and second place in the 2023 World Landscape Architecture Design Competition organized by the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).
