The 2025 Danish Landscape Award has been awarded to The Five Halds, a site-specific landscape and architectural project by Erik Brandt Dam Architects and Charlotte Skibsted Landscape Architects. Located near Viborg, the project interweaves architecture, material memory, and historic terrain, interpreting 800 years of Danish history around one of the country’s most significant castle landscapes.

Presented jointly by the Danish Association of Architectural Firms, Park and Nature Managers Denmark, and the Association of Danish Landscape Architects, the award recognises exceptional contributions to the profession. The winning team was announced at a ceremony in Copenhagen’s Valencia building, where the two other finalists — Operaparken by COBE and Søborg Hovedgade by BOGL — were also honoured.

Erik Brandt Dam Architects and Charlotte Skibsted Landscape Architects awarded for exemplary cultural landscape interpretation. The jury praised The Five Halds as “a masterpiece in Danish landscape architecture” for its careful integration into the terrain, aesthetic coherence, and ability to evoke historical continuity without nostalgia. It connects a dispersed landscape of earthworks and ruins with new architectural interventions, providing visitors with a cohesive and contemplative spatial narrative. According to the jury, the project exemplifies “landscape art in its most admirable form” — neither decorative nor monumental, but embedded and enduring.

Landscape architect Sune Oslev of MASU Planning, serving as jury spokesperson, underlined that all three finalists represent the “exceptionally high level and relevance” of Danish landscape practice today. Operaparken by COBE, a new urban park adjacent to Copenhagen’s opera house, delivering a multi-layered landscape atop an underground car park. Søborg Hovedgade by BOGL, a transformation of a local high street in Gladsaxe, combining mobility upgrades with green infrastructure and urban vitality strategies.

This year’s jury included:

Sune Oslev, MASU Planning (Danish Architectural Firms)
Jakob Sandell Sørensen, Sandell Sustainability (Danish Landscape Architects)
Steen Himmer, Holmens and Garnisons Cemeteries (Park and Nature Managers)
Torben Sangild, Zetland journalist and cultural researcher
Marie Louise Helveg Bøgh, Director of Sorø Art Museum

In its 12th edition, the Danish Landscape Award aims to recognise built works that demonstrate both design excellence and public relevance. Past winners include H.C. Andersen’s Garden (2023), Remiseparken (2021), and Tagparadiset (2014), among others.