LACF Congratulates Connor Budd
About Connor
Connor Budd is entering his final year in the Master of Landscape Architecture program in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia. Raised on Salt Spring Island, the traditional, unceded lands of many Hul'qumi'num and SENĆOŦEN speaking peoples, Connor’s approach to land and the practice of landscape architecture has been deeply shaped by the community, culture and environments found in the Southern Gulf Islands and Southeastern Vancouver Island, resulting in an intensely place-based and hyper-local practice. Previously, Connor studied Fine Art at Langara College, and graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2021 with a Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design.
Much of Connor’s landscape architecture work focuses on human relationships and interactions with “natural” spaces, whether designed or otherwise, and their dynamics. For over a year, he has worked with various First Nations along the Lower Fraser River, both as a research assistant and as an intern, uncovering and rediscovering ways of living with water - from flood mitigation and resilience to reconnection of lost floodplains, invasive species management, and salmonid habitat enhancement. This work also prioritizes the traditional ways of knowing and living with the land and water, centering First Nations stewardship of the Fraser and its tributaries, and facilitating the harvest of food, medicine and material, practice of ceremony and traditional, and the exercising of their rights to their territory.
Connor has also created work examining novel ways for a central coast First Nation to reclaim and repair their territories by reinterpreting remnants of colonial extraction. He has developed interventions for ecological loss and grief in Stanley Park, and has produced graphic, experiential, and written work about Garry oak ecosystems of Southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. From September 2023 to April 2024, Connor served as one of the Social Coordinators for UBC’s Landscape Architecture Student Association.
The native plant communities of the Pacific Northwest are a primary interest of Connor’s. He focuses on the relationships between humans—whether Indigenous or settler—and these communities, and how these dynamics have evolved and continue to do so. Going into his final year of study, he is excited to examine how climate change is, and will continue to, shape those relationships, and what novel plant communities and relationships will emerge in the future.
Jury Statement
Connor Budd's submission was selected to receive the 2024 Frederick Gage Todd National Scholarship because of its aspiration to explore a complex, challenging and topical issue that demands the attention of the landscape architecture profession and its advancement of the values of the Canadian Landscape Charter. Connor's research focuses on a challenging scope to be addressed among today’s numerous issues.
He brings a diverse perspective to his scholarship, given his post-secondary education and strong personal connection to the land. His design skills, intellectual engagement and commitment to their proposal are to be commended.
Selected Projects
