Laureates and runners-up of the René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize:
René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2023
The 2023 René Pechère Prize for the best Dutch-language work on garden architecture was awarded to the book « Landschappen, het onvoltooide » written by Belgian landscape architect Chris Vermander.
René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2021
The 2021 René Pechère Prize for the best Dutch-language work on garden architecture was awarded to the book « Hoveniers van Oranje – Functie, werk en positie 1621-1732 » written by Dutch philosopher and garden history scholar Lenneke Berkhout.
René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2019
The award ceremony could not be organised.
René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2017
René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2015
The 2015 René Pechère Prize for the best Dutch-language work on garden architecture was awarded to the book Copijn 1763-2013 Tweehonderdvijftig jaar tuinlieden, boomkwekers, boomverzorgers, tuin- en landschapsarchitecten by Mariëtte Kamphuis (author) and Anne Mieke Backer (editor). The prize for the best book on landscape architecture was awarded to the book Dijken van Nederland by LOLA Landschapsarchitecten.
René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2013
Metropolitane landschapsarchitectuur
stedelijke parken en landschappen par Clemens Steenbergen, Wouter Reh
Runner-up 2013: Heimerick Tromp, De Nederlandse landschapsstijl in de achttiende eeuw
René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2011
With a bronze trophy by Tervuren artist Tom Frantzen, the René Pechère Library awarded the René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize for the first time. In 2008 and 2010, the René Pechère Prize had only been awarded to French-language books.
Under the presidency of heritage researcher and initiator Herman Van den Bossche, nine jury members selected five books the previous year (2010) for the first René Pechère Dutch-language Literary Prize 2011 for the art of gardens — a concept interpreted very broadly. They chose from a long list of 34 books, none published more than five years earlier. Four nominated books came from the Netherlands, one from Belgium. Two had a European perspective, three a more limited scope; two were works of history, three of landscape architecture. One book was published only in Dutch; the others in two to six languages. Diversity was very much the order of the day.
The 2011 laureate is the biography Jan Bijhouwer (1898-1974) – Pioneering Landscape Architect by Gerrie Andela (010 Publishers, 2011). Andela portrays one of the most influential Dutch landscape architects in a scientific yet accessible manner. Jan Bijhouwer, known notably for his sculpture garden at the Kröller-Müller Museum (1955-1964), travelled as a young botanist to America with a tent to collect plants. He became the first professor in his field at the renowned agricultural university of Wageningen and at Delft University of Technology. As an ecological consultant and urban planner, he helped shape the modern art of gardens. His personal work archives no longer exist – part of them having been burned during the war – making a substantial monograph all the more welcome. Andela was permitted to bring Frantzen’s trophy — a bronze palm branch piercing a disc — to the Netherlands.
Monografieen van Nederlandse stedebouwkundigen – grensverleggend landschapsarchitect : Monografieën van Nederlandse… door Gerrie Andela
In addition, two books received a “special mention”: the Dutch/English Lexicon of Garden and Landscape Architecture, an explanatory specialist work with instructive essays, by Meto J. Vroom (published by Blauwdruk, 2005/2010), and the monograph Hex, een prinselijk landgoed ontsluierd (published by Mercatorfonds, 2007) — a garden art book filled with historic illustrations and contemporary photographs of the 18th-century rural estate in Belgian Limburg, described by the jury as a true “coffee-table book with substance”. There is thus also a form of Flemish recognition.
The jury also recognised On site – Landscape architecture in Europe, comprising ten essays and a portrait of 47 recent landscape architecture projects in Europe (published by Blauwdruk, 2009), written by the international collective of writers Collectief. The Dutch/English catalogue accompanying the 2008 exhibition at Het Loo Palace (Apeldoorn), Landschappen en verbeelding, also received recognition, as did Shaping the European Tradition of Garden and Landscape Architecture 1600-2000 (publ. NAi, 2008), richly illustrated with garden and park projects from 1593 to 2007.
Runner-up 2011 (1), Chris De Maegd, Hex – een prinselijk landgoed ontsluierd
Runner-up 2011 (2), Meto J. Vroom, Lexicon van de tuin- en landschapsarchitectuur
Jury composition:
- Gerrie ANDELA
- Herman van den BOSSCHE
- Chris DE MAEGD
- Arina van der DOES
- Paul GEERTS
- Dirk EVERAERT
- Dr Heimerick TROMP
- Christian VERMANDER
- Nicolas de VILLENFAGNE
- Ann VOETS
- Ursula WIESER