Bijhouwerprijs

Bijhouwer prize

A lifetime achievement award for extraordinary landscape architects

Lifetime achievement award once every three years

With the Bijhouwer Prize, the NHBOS fund rewards a special and high-quality achievement in the field of landscape architecture. This award is presented once every three years at the Bijhouwer Event, thereby bringing landscape architecture to the attention of a wider audience. The prize includes 20,000 euros and receiving the winners cup for 3 years.

The prize winner spends the amount on a project, activity or event that stimulates the development of the discipline.

Prize winners can be individuals who have or have had a special significance for the profession, consultancy firms or companies that distinguish themselves through a special oeuvre, but also services or departments of government organisations that have fulfilled their responsibility for the quality of the landscape or urban outdoor space at a high level.

During the Bijhouwer Event, the Bijhouwer Prize is presented, the Bijhouwer Lecture is delivered, and the projects of the 3 talent grants will be presented.

Who was Jan Bijhouwer?

J.P.Th. (Jan) Bijhouwer (1898-1974) was the first professor of Landscape Architecture at the former Agricultural College in Wageningen and was later also professor at the former Delft University of Technology. After his high school education, Jan Bijhouwer worked at various plant nurseries, after which he studied horticulture at Wageningen University in 1916. From 1927 onwards, he worked for some time as a researcher and instructor in garden design in the US, where he was inspired by the field of landscape architecture, the modernisation of society and the parks inside and outside the cities. He returned to the Netherlands in 1929. After coming into contact with urban planners and after his experiences in the US, Bijhouwer became increasingly interested in the urbanisation of the landscape and in the specific aspects of modern society that were strongly changing the landscape, such as car use, suburbanisation and mass recreation. In his designs for the landscape, he sought a new balance between city and country and between nature and agriculture. He was one of the first to advocate so-called ‘relaxation landscapes’. In addition to his professorship in Wageningen (1946-1966), he also became professor of landscape art at Delft University of Technology from 1957 onwards.

In honour of his great contribution to the field of landscape architecture, the NHBOS fund has awarded the Bijhouwer Prize since 2006.