Designing for biodiversity in the built environment
What does it mean to plan with species in mind? Weisser and Hauck’s prize-winning paper presents a structured framework for embedding animal life-cycles into landscape architectural and urban design.
The 2025 Landscape Research Best Paper Prize was jointly awarded to two papers that advance interdisciplinary landscape research in distinct but complementary ways. This article highlights the contribution of Wolfgang W. Weisser and Thomas E. Hauck, whose work brings ecological thinking directly into landscape architectural and urban design practice.
Weisser and Hauck received the prize for Animal-Aided Design – planning for biodiversity in the built environment by embedding a species’ life-cycle into landscape architectural and urban design processes, published in Landscape Research. The paper presents a structured method for integrating biodiversity into the design of urban landscapes from the earliest stages of planning.
Why this paper stood out
This shift moves ecological thinking from constraint to opportunity, demonstrating how urban environments can be shaped to support both human and non-human life.
The contribution
The method is structured around the full life-cycle of a species, identifying requirements for breeding, feeding, shelter, courtship, hibernation and long-term survival. These needs are translated into spatial design components and incorporated into the layout of buildings, planting schemes and open space.
The process follows a clear sequence: species selection, development of species portraits, design responses to critical needs, implementation during construction and post-occupancy evaluation. This structured approach allows biodiversity to be integrated into projects in a systematic and measurable way.
Species-specific examples demonstrate how this works in practice. The house sparrow case shows how nesting modules, food sources, shelter, dust baths and water can be located within a small home range, ensuring that all critical needs are met within the designed environment. These elements are integrated into façades, planting and everyday public space rather than treated as decorative additions.
Implications for landscape practice
By translating ecological knowledge into design decisions, the paper offers a bridge between landscape architecture, planning and ecology. It demonstrates how biodiversity can be embedded into the built environment in ways that are both practical and design-led.
This contribution is particularly significant for contemporary urban development, where landscape design plays an increasing role in addressing biodiversity loss. Animal-Aided Design provides a framework that is both conceptually strong and directly applicable to practice.
Editorial citation
Hannes Palang, Editor-in-Chief of Landscape Research, commented:
“What stood out in this paper was its ability to move beyond advocacy and into method. Weisser and Hauck show how biodiversity can be designed into the built environment through a process that is both ecologically informed and workable for practitioners. It is an excellent example of research that expands the scope of landscape architecture while remaining grounded in application.”
About the joint award
The 2025 Landscape Research Best Paper Prize was jointly awarded to two papers that advance interdisciplinary approaches to landscape research. Together, they demonstrate the breadth of contemporary landscape scholarship, from conceptual frameworks to applied design methodologies.
Read the companion joint winner: Katherine Burlingame – Landscape as method
Explore the full Best Paper Prize collection:
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/clar20/collections/best-paper-prize-landscape-research
Read the 2025 Best Paper by an Early Career Researcher: Overstreet and Sørensen
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/clar20/collections/best-paper-prize-early-career-landscape-research