RMIT student recognised in global Landscape Architecture competition

The competition invited landscape architecture students from around the world to reimagine Victoria Harbour in Melbourne’s Docklands. Shortlisted projects responded to themes of design futures and circularity, exploring design as a restorative force that supports biodiversity, communities and resource renewal. 

The winners were announced at the opening of exhibition featuring shortlisted projects at RMIT’s Design Hub gallery as part of Melbourne Design Week 2026. RMIT Master of Landscape Architecture first-year student, Sunmin Kwon developed his project, Reweaving Docklands, in collaboration with Yena Kim from the University of Melbourne.  

Reweaving Docklands reimagines Victoria Harbour as a living estuarine environment - reconnecting water, ecology, public life and cultural memory through lighter intervention rather than further development.  

The design is structured around three strategies: Hydrological Rhythm (the water cycle), Circular Commons (regenerative design), and Interwoven Link (interconnectedness), each responding to the site's water dynamics, hard edge conditions, and buried ecological and cultural history. 

As an international student from Seoul, Kwon first became interested in RMIT’s Landscape Architecture program during a holiday to Melbourne in 2022 where he visited the RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design’s end-of-year exhibition.  

He said the opportunity to exhibit his own work at RMIT is a “full circle moment” and that taking part in the competition provided much more than recognition: 

"In the past, I was an observer of that international conversation; now, through my project, I feel I have been able to add a small voice to it.” 

"This competition was not only about achieving a result but also became an opportunity for me to better understand Australian landscape architecture and design culture. I found it valuable to learn how closely landscape architecture is connected to historical contexts, social and environmental discussions, and broader international discourse,” he continued.

Kwon first met Yena Kim at an RMIT Landscape Architecture Public Dialogue session earlier this year, quickly realising their different approaches to design were complementary. 

"I feel it’s especially meaningful that Yena and I were able to meet through one of these sessions, resulting in an actual collaborative project. While working together, we realised that our design approaches and ways of expression were different, but those differences became complementary perspectives rather than barriers." 

RMIT Associate Dean, Landscape Architecture, Dr Yazid Ninsalam, remarked that the occasion was a significant achievement for Sunmin and RMIT, with only two awards presented internationally in the category. 

“The award recognises the calibre of student talent emerging from RMIT’s Landscape Architecture program, and the opportunities for students to make connections and build their networks beyond the University,” he said. 

Learn more about RMIT’s Landscape Architecture programs.