HSWT Professor Ingrid Schegk honoured with the ECLAS Lifetime Achievement Award 2025

Prof Ingrid Schegk received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ECLAS Conference 2025. The ECLAS Awards Committee cited the award winner's consistent commitment to European and international exchange and her significant involvement in the introduction of the International Master of Landscape Architecture (IMLA) master's degree programme as well as her many leadership positions and numerous publications promoting low-carbon, sustainable building techniques and education in the field of Landscape Construction and Management as reasons for their decision. All of this makes her a strong European player who has been instrumental in advancing Landscape Architecture education throughout her thirty-year academic career.

Shaping sustainability

Prof Ingrid Schegk has been teaching at the Landscape Architecture department at HSWT since 1995. Her area of specialisation and teaching is building construction and design, which includes the conception of constructive elements in Landscape Architecture from the preliminary design to the implementation stage. This requires expertise and specialised knowledge of building materials and their interaction with the environment, technical rules as well as methodical and illustrative knowledge of the planning process of structural design. During her time at the University of applied sciences, she led numerous courses, modules and international design studios and was a guest lecturer in Austria, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy and other European countries. From the very beginning, the design of liveable open spaces and their sustainable, non-invasive structural realisation have been at the centre of her planning and teaching philosophy.

Commitment to university politics

In addition to her teaching activities, Prof. Ingrid Schegk was Vice President of the HSWT from 2001 to 2007, during which time she supervised the transition from a diploma to a Bachelor's or Master's degree programme. By establishing the Landscape Construction and Management course, the first of its kind in the German-speaking world, and introducing the IMLA, she strengthened the University of applied sciences and the department in the area of sustainability education and internationalisation. Since the introduction of the IMLA Master's programme in 2001, around 500 students from over 80 different countries have already chosen and completed the course.

Creating international connections

Prof Ingrid Schegk's commitment to sustainable landscape design and cultural heritage is outstanding, as demonstrated by her research into dry stone wall systems and terraced landscapes. Her involvement in Europe-wide networks has significantly advanced intercultural dialogue and European integration in the field of Landscape Architecture. As management of the IMLA from 2011 to 2025, she continuously developed the Master's degree programme, expanded international cooperation and organised numerous study projects abroad. Prof Ingrid Schegk has also taken part in numerous ECLAS and International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) conferences as well as the LE:NOTRE Institute (LNI) Landscape Forum. Her commitment to anchoring the international idea in Landscape Architecture in connection with sustainability and the preservation of culture is evident in all areas of her teaching activities.

Crowning finale

For Prof Ingrid Schegk, the award for her life's work is a successful conclusion to her career. „The award is a great honour and pleasure for me, as well as a wonderful and dignified conclusion to my thirty years of university work. I am very grateful that I was able to make a small contribution to the international networking of teaching and research in Landscape Architecture during this time. It has never been more important than it is today for young people to come together across national borders and language barriers to work together on our living environment,“ summarises the award winner. She will retire at the end of September 2025 after 30 years at HSWT.

We would be happy to arrange an interview with the award winner Prof Ingrid Schegk if you are interested.

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