The Resene NZILA Awards celebrate the breadth and quality of landscape architecture practice across Aotearoa.

Ahead of the full Call for Entries release (mid March), we’re sharing the confirmed categories, core criteria, and terms of entry to support early preparation and give members clarity on what will be assessed.

The 2026 programme includes a number of refinements informed by feedback from judges, members, and previous award cycles. These updates strengthen consistency, clarify expectations, and better reflect the range of work across design and planning practice, while keeping the kaupapa of the Awards firmly grounded in recognising excellence.

We encourage entrants to review the criteria early and begin preparing submissions with these expectations in mind.

About the awards

Categories

Criteria

Terms

What's changed

What’s new for 2026
Following feedback from judges, members, and programme delivery teams, we’ve made several refinements to strengthen clarity, fairness, and consistency across the Awards.

Key updates include:

• Two judging streams:
  A new Planning Stream sits alongside the Design Stream, recognising the breadth of landscape architecture practice.
• Clearer criteria guidance:
  Criteria now provide clearer direction around value, climate and sustainability outcomes, and cultural context.
• Improved integrity and authorship requirements:
  Entrants must confirm project permissions and clearly identify contributors and scope of services.
• More clarity around judging methods:
  Planning categories are assessed on submitted material only, while Design categories may include site visits.
• Simplified entry expectations:
  Guidance has been refined to support clearer, more consistent submissions and reduce unnecessary complexity.

These updates aim to keep the Awards robust, fair, and reflective of contemporary practice across Aotearoa.

Thank you
Thank you to Resene our naming rights sponsor.

The Institute acknowledges that the Awards programme is made possible through the generous support of our partners.