The third edition of the Moscow Open International competition of urban landscape design ‘Flower Jam’ sponsored by the Moscow Government, will be held in the summer of 2019.
The competition and commissioned (out of competition) gardens will decorate the public spaces of the capital – squares, streets, parks, becoming part of the urban landscape.
This year, the duration of the Flower Jam exhibition gardens will be extended: Rather than lasting for several weeks, as in previous years, in 2019 they will now last for several months, from June to September. Giving a greater number of Muscovites and tourists a much longer opportunity to see the competition gardens.
The theme of the competition is “Summer Gardens of Moscow”, meaning the participants must work with concept of permanent flowering gardens (in view of the fact the gardens have to look their best for several months).

Due to the change in the longevity of the competition gardens, the requirements for the projects and the way they are evaluated by the international jury will change. The competition criteria requires that, the Summer Gardens of Moscow, created by the participants of Flower Jam -2019, should not only show a high level of flowering throughout the summer period but should also change over time. So for example the garden looks different in August than it did in June.

In contrast to architecture, which is perceived in three dimensions, gardens are created taking into account the fourth dimension – the time during which they change – colours, volume, appearance and so on.
The international jury will evaluate the projects of the finalists taking in account how these changes have been considered in the design: over the summer they will examine the projects several times. Evaluations of the different stages of the garden’s will affect the jury’s final decision.

This year’s competition will have four professional categories: large, medium and small exhibition gardens and “Landscape design for educational and health institutions.” The last “social” category is being introduced for the first time. Participants are invited to develop functional projects for the outdoor spaces of schools, hospitals, and other social institutions, taking into consideration their specific requirements: sensory and therapeutic gardens, landscape solutions for outdoor play and educational spaces.

There is also a special category for future professionals – students of landscape design educational institutions: “The competition of student projects.” This category was introduced in 2017 in order to attract creative young people to add to the discussion of what we want to see in Moscow and to address issues of urban landscape design for the public.
As in previous years, there will also be the category for amateurs : “Competition of amateur flower beds in residential areas”. This will be held in early September 2019 and will be, as in 2018, timed to coincide with the celebration of the City Day.

The application for the Professionals competition is already open on the Flower Jam -2019 Competition website and the link will stay open until December 15, 2018.

The final deadline for submission of the projects is January 15, 2019. At the end of February, there will be a meeting with the expert council and the selected finalists from the projects submitted.

The meeting of the expert council will be held in conjunction with the Winter Landscape Conference “Flower Jam”, which will be held in the Moscow region at the end of February 2019. Important urban landscape design issues will be discussed at the conference. The headline speaker of the conference will be the chairman of the jury of “Flower Jam” – 2018, and the chairman of the expert council of “Flower Jam” – 2019, James Basson – one of the world’s leading landscape designers.

Another innovation of the 2019 edition of “Flower Jam” is the introduction of mentors – they will be members of the Competitions Expert Council who will support the selected designers. Due to the changing nature of the planting design and the more complicated brief, in 2019 participants will be given a unique opportunity to create their projects in collaboration with leading landscape designers and architects from Russia and the rest of the world. After the Expert Council has selected the projects for implementation, the mentors will start working with the selected participants to help them finalise their projects. The selected locations for each garden will be provided so the design can be adapted accordingly.

The judging of the Competition and the results feedback usually takes place in late August/early September as part of the festival “Flower Jam”. Also, during the festival, all special commissions (out of competition) are implemented, and other special events are held – an amateur gardeners contest and other events dedicated to the City Day.