ILI Design Awards 2026

Click the link for details of the schedule and categories

Registration Closes 31 August · Submission Deadline 11 September


Award entries cost €150 each with the exception of The Diane Nickels Memorial Award for Excellence in Hand Drawing (category B:15) which is free of charge 


The Diane Nickels Memorial Award for Excellence in Hand Drawing

- entries to this category are free of charge to encourage submissions from all levels of members 

Submission guidelines for this award

The Diane Nickels award is a commemorative award for the first female President of the Irish Landscape Institute, who passed away in 2008.  Diane Nickels was an excellent sketch artist and could quickly turn around sketches and hand-drawn plans that beautifully and simply communicated design ideas, concepts and technical problem resolutions.

The purpose of the award is to recognise, promote and celebrate one of the Landscape Architect’s key skills –the use of drawing by hand as a means to communicate, develop and articulate design ideas.

Submissions should illustrate:

  • Hand-drawing competency 
  • Hand-drawing as a tool in the design process –illustrating design development of ideas from sketches through to refined drawings, to show the design process and thinking by means of skill in sketching and drawing 
  • Clear process of thinking

Submissions should be made in digital format on the same basis as the other categories outlined above.

Please note: maximum number of entries for this category is two per member.