The Monocle Minute

Landscape architecture often receives less attention than its more conventional counterpart. Perhaps it’s because the spaces between buildings, such as parks, plazas and promenades, tend to be less flashy than new concert halls and skyscrapers. Few, if any, landscape architects are household names. It’s an issue that this year’s Obel Award has sought to redress by naming Kate Orff as its 2023 recipient. The landscape architect and founder of US-based design studio Scape was picked as the winner of the €100,000 award for a built project that responded to the theme of “adaptation”.

Due for completion next year, the Living Breakwaters project is the product of a decade-long slog by Scape to create nearly 1km of biodiverse breakwaters along the southern shore of Staten Island. Orff has overseen the installation of a mix of stones and ecologically enhanced concrete units close to the shore in order to calm the tides, protect the beach and prevent erosion. The breakwaters also double as a habitat for oysters, which enhance the structure’s protective quality in a natural way, helping to transform it into a reef teeming with aquatic life. “It not only protects humans and revitalises the coastline of New York but also restores lost marine biodiversity,” said jury chair Martha Schwartz. “This is a visionary project that tackles the full task of adaptation.”

The win will surely set Orff on a trajectory towards landscape “starchitect” status. But more importantly, spotlighting her work might inspire a host of similarly ambitious architects to serve people and the planet too. While cities across the world are seeking urban solutions to combat extreme weather challenges, maybe this less-acclaimed branch of architecture holds some much-needed solutions.

Nic Monisse is Monocle’s design editor and host of ‘Monocle on Design’ on Monocle Radio. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Official US government documents revealed this week that Joe Biden’s administration is planning to withhold some of the country’s military aid to Egypt and redirect it towards Taiwan and Lebanon. The US claims that Cairo has failed to meet human-rights standards in the treatment of political prisoners. Egypt’s government, under its president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, has made some efforts since 2021 to clean up its act but critics claim that these changes were merely cosmetic. That might also be true of the US’s latest decision.

“Withdrawing $85m (€79.2m) of an overall annual amount of $1.3bn (€1.2bn) is just a symbolic move,” Yossi Mekelberg, associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, tells The Monocle Minute. “The real question is whether the US can develop a consistent approach when it comes to sending foreign aid but also upholding human rights.”

For more on the US decision to shift part of its military aid from Egypt to Taiwan and Lebanon, tune in to ‘The Globalist’ on Monocle Radio at 07.00 London time.

Representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are on a two-week trip in Sri Lanka to review the country’s loan programme. The nation is in the midst of the worst economic crisis in its history and received a $3bn (€2.8 bn) bailout from the IMF earlier this year after it defaulted on its debts in 2022. High inflation and shortages of essential goods have caused widespread unrest, forcing prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign in May last year.

The first $330m (€309m) instalment of the loan came in March this year and though the support is vital, it is no silver bullet. The causes of the current crisis are multiple, from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic to a misguided ban on chemical fertilisers and general economic mismanagement. Analysts have expressed concern that the IMF-guided restructuring plan is not rigorous enough to solve Sri Lanka’s debt issues and prevent another collapse.

Artists for Morocco is a collective of 27 Moroccan creatives led by GQ Middle East international editor Samira Larouci, photographer Anass Ouaziz and designer Ismail Elaaddioui, who joined forces this week to raise money for earthquake relief. The proceeds of a newly launched print sale set up by the artists will be donated to local NGOs and charities working to provide aid supplies to victims as well as ground assistance to those stuck in remote villages. The artists’ work offers insightful snapshots of Moroccan life.
artistsformorocco.com

Meet Miika Lipiäinen, co-founder of the award-winning Kyrö Distillery Company, which he launched with his friends after hatching the idea in the most Finnish of locations, the sauna. Plus: how the Fukushima disaster inspired Elisa Koivumaa, founder and CEO of Sees, to start the household cleaning-products and cosmetics brand that uses all-natural ingredients.