In honor of Wildfire Awareness Month, UC Berkeley has announced the winners of its Wildfire Resilient Landscape Design Contest. This initiative, in collaboration with CSAA Insurance Group and the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), aims to generate innovative and cost-effective landscape ideas that enhance wildfire defense while maintaining aesthetic appeal.

Christina Hill, director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Development, from the University of California, Berkeley, supervised the competition. The judging panel consists of landscape design and wildfire advocacy professionals.

The prize distribution is as follows:

• $10,000: Grace Dibble/Shaida Rashidi
• $5,000: Madeira Buede Graf / Florencia Sepulveda, Yanyao Cui, Rebecca Cammack / Alison Dooley, Nicholas Lira / Ana Newbo Bermejo.
• $1,000: Grayson Curtis / Elias Demosthenes / Harrison Wren, Mostafa Sedqi, Elissa Woodham

Hill commented: “The aim of this competition was to inspire our students to apply their advanced design knowledge and show that beauty and safety can be compatible goals, and they clearly achieved that. While a changing climate may increase the threat of bushfires, these award-winning designs It highlights that visual appeal and the practical function of a home can go hand in hand.

The winning designs include comprehensive landscape plans with special emphasis on the zero- to five-foot home fire zone, in keeping with IBHS’s Wildfire Preparation Home Standard. This system, based on recent forest fire research, aims to significantly reduce the chance of a house igniting with embers.

Alistair Watt, Chief Product Officer at IBHS, said: “The science behind the Wildfire Preparation Home proves that taking a system of measures to protect a home from wildfires can significantly reduce the risks. As exemplified by these landscape designs, a home’s kindling zone is crucial to creating A line of defense against wildfires, the good news is that it doesn’t require sacrificing curb appeal.

The top designs cater to different budget levels – low, medium and high – with a focus on creating a non-combustible home ignition zone. This includes using soil and landscaping in place of vegetation around the perimeter of the home and removing flammable mulch, yard debris, trees and shrubs.

“We are thrilled to share these eye-catching landscape designs and hope they inspire property owners to embrace these ideas that protect and beautify,” commented Linda Goldstein, Executive Vice President of Customer Experience and Marketing at CSAA Insurance Group. “By continuing to support innovative ideas that reduce risk, we remain committed to By protecting our customers and communities.

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