Radicepura Garden Festival VI : Gardens of Hope, Cultivating Coexistence
Competition Brief
The Radicepura Garden Festival is the first international event dedicated to Mediterranean garden design and landscape architecture, held biennially at the Radicepura Horticultural Park in Giarre, Catania, Sicily — positioned between Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea. Organized by the Radicepura Foundation in collaboration with nursery Piante Faro, the Festival has run since 2017 and is now preparing its sixth edition. The 2026 Call for Ideas launched on 2 April 2026 with a registration and submission deadline of 30 October 2026. The festival itself is scheduled to open in 2027.
The call is free to enter and reserved primarily for designers under 36 years of age. Eight winning gardens will be built on-site with a construction budget of €10,000 each, fully funded by the Radicepura Foundation.
Intent
The theme for the Sixth Edition is “Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Coexistence.” The brief describes Radicepura as a place for human and botanical coexistence, where the slow rhythm of growth teaches patience and harmony. The garden the call seeks is described as a sanctuary and a classroom simultaneously — a place where humans and plants exist in genuine dialogue rather than humans simply shaping nature. The organizing principle is coexistence rather than control.
The brief specifies what it expects to see spatially and ecologically: native plants, exotic species, and introduced hybrids coexisting with wildlife habitats and gentle human pathways; long-lived trees, perennial flowers, and layered plantings that unfold over time; seasonal change made visible through fallen leaves, sprouting bulbs, and flowering cycles; seating terraces from which visitors can observe natural rhythms at their own pace; and water features as an integral design element. The garden must adapt naturally, letting plants guide human experience rather than the other way around.
Purpose
This is a built competition: the 8 selected winning teams design and then physically construct their gardens within the Radicepura park, supervised and guided by Radicepura staff throughout the process. The gardens remain on-site for the duration of the six-month festival. At the conclusion of the festival, the garden judged to have evolved most effectively over the six months receives the Gardenia Prize, a special recognition awarded by Gardenia magazine — one of Italy’s leading garden publications. The Festival also reserves the right to invite additional garden designers to create installations within the park.
Requirements
The call is open to professionals and students with the skills to design and create a garden: individual professionals or teams of emerging architects, landscape architects, agronomists, garden designers, botanists, nurserymen, urban planners, engineers, artists, and curators. The Festival encourages the formation of multidisciplinary teams. Companies, associations, cooperatives, schools, and universities may also participate.
Eligibility: All participants must be no older than 36 years of age. Participants must not have turned 37 by 30 October 2026. Students may use a university tutor who is older than 36. Each designer or group member may submit only one application. Winners from previous editions of the Radicepura Garden Festival are not eligible to participate.
The selection runs in two phases. Phase 1 (Idea): Participants submit a concise dossier presenting their garden concept with a title, brief explanatory text, reference images, and evocative sketches communicating a botanical vision. The dossier must demonstrate: creative response to the sixth edition theme; originality, clarity, and coherence of the design idea; potential for public interaction; and contribution to garden art, culture, and innovation. Phase 2 (Development): Finalists selected from Phase 1 are each assigned a specific project area within the Festival grounds to develop into a full buildable proposal.
Jury
The jury is organized into two panels: an Artistic Jury and a Technical Jury. The Artistic Director of the Radicepura Garden Festival for the 2026 edition is Emanuela Rosa-Clot.
- Emanuela Rosa-Clot — Artistic Director, Radicepura Garden Festival (VI Edition). Born in Turin in 1964. Journalist and editorial director with over 30 years in Italian media. Director of Gardenia (since July 2006), Bell’Italia (since April 2009), Bell’Europa (since April 2010), and In Viaggio (since May 2013), all published by Cairo Editore. Recipient of the Giorgio Gallesio Award for botany (2014). Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2017).
- Artistic Jury and Technical Jury: Full composition not publicly listed at the time of writing. To be announced by the Festival.
Registration Fees
| Category | Fee |
|---|---|
| All participants — under 36, international, professionals and students | Free |
Prizes and Rewards
| Award | Budget / Prize | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Winning Gardens (selected by jury) | €10,000 construction budget per garden (plant supply and materials, provided by the Foundation) | Physical garden built at Radicepura Park, Sicily. Guided and supervised by Radicepura staff. International media coverage and publication. Presence throughout the 6-month festival. |
| Gardenia Prize (best evolved garden) | None (special recognition) | Award by Gardenia magazine for the garden judged to have evolved most effectively over the 6-month festival period. |
Key Dates
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Call for Ideas Launched | 2 April 2026 |
| Registration and Submission Deadline (Phase 1) | 30 October 2026 |
| Phase 1 Shortlist Communicated to Candidates | 30 November 2026 (via email) |
| Winners Announcement | 15 January 2027 |
| Festival Opening (VI Edition) | 2027 (exact dates TBC) |
✦ ArchUp Competition Review
The Radicepura Garden Festival is one of the most substantively grounded built landscape competitions available to young practitioners globally. Unlike conceptual award programs or recognition-only platforms, Radicepura is a genuine built commission: winning teams design and physically construct their gardens at a real Mediterranean horticultural park, with a €10,000 construction budget provided by the Foundation. This makes it a career-defining opportunity for emerging landscape architects, garden designers, and spatial practitioners under 36. The six-month duration of the festival means the winning gardens are not temporary installations but living, evolving environments evaluated over time — a rare and ecologically serious framework for a landscape competition. The Gardenia Prize for the best-evolved garden after six months rewards ecological intelligence and temporal design thinking rather than just visual impact at opening. The Festival has a documented track record dating to 2017 across five completed editions with internationally published results and participation from IFLA Europe and other landscape institutions. Artistic Director Emanuela Rosa-Clot brings editorial credibility through her directorship of Italy’s foremost garden publications. The theme “Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Coexistence” is substantively framed and philosophically distinct from generic landscape briefs — the emphasis on coexistence rather than control, and on plants guiding human experience rather than the reverse, is an ecologically and ethically serious brief that demands genuine botanical knowledge alongside design skill. Free entry, €10,000 construction funding, and a six-month built platform in Sicily make this one of the highest-value open calls available to under-36 practitioners in landscape and ecological design. The primary constraint is the age restriction of 36 and the requirement for teams to physically execute the garden on-site in Sicily.
Final Thoughts
The Radicepura Garden Festival VI Call for Ideas is exceptional in the landscape competition field: free entry, a funded built outcome of €10,000, six months of exhibition in a prominent Mediterranean horticultural park, evaluation by an Artistic and Technical Jury, and a post-festival prize from Gardenia magazine. For emerging landscape architects, garden designers, urban planners, botanists, and multidisciplinary spatial practitioners under 36, this is one of the most concrete and consequential opportunities available in 2026.
The theme demands genuine botanical engagement — not just spatial design skill but an understanding of plant ecology, seasonal change, and Mediterranean biodiversity. Multidisciplinary teams combining landscape architecture, botany, and art are explicitly encouraged. The submission deadline of 30 October 2026 gives teams six months from the April 2 launch to develop a well-considered Phase 1 dossier.
Registration Deadline
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