The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recently announced the winners of its 2026 Professional Awards. Integral, Esquel's Sustainable Development Garden in Guilin, received the Honor Award in Professional General Design for its work in restoring and regenerating a degraded landscape.

ASLA is one of the world’s leading professional organizations for landscape architecture, and its Professional Awards are widely recognized within the international landscape architecture community. This award recognizes Integral's long-term efforts in ecological restoration and landscape regeneration. Once a severely degraded site, the land has been progressively restored and reshaped into a self-renewing ecological garden, a place where manufacturing, nature and people can coexist in harmony.

Restoring a Degraded Landscape

Integral stands on the site of a former brick factory. Years of mud brick production, soil excavation, and industrial runoff caused severe land erosion and environmental degradation.

Rather than reshaping the landform at scale, Integral worked with the site's existing conditions. The design followed the topography and hydrology of the low-lying basin, kept excavation to a minimum, and planned wetlands, vegetation, and water systems together, giving the ecosystem room to recover on its own.

As the ecosystem gradually recovered, the wetlands began to serve multiple functions, including water purification, stormwater regulation, soil stabilization, and habitat provision. Monitoring from 2021 to 2026 showed that water quality within the garden improved from Class V to Class II, while the number of bird species increased from 7 to 21. Birds such as kingfishers and Chinese grosbeaks have settled here, and native freshwater fish and amphibians are returning.

Planting followed the same principle. Working with botanists, horticultural experts, employees, and the local community, Integral selected native Guilin species for over 95% of the plant species in the garden. Through on-site cultivation and long-term maintenance, ecological restoration has evolved from a single construction project into an ongoing shared practice.

Reusing Materials and Resources

Regeneration extends beyond water and vegetation to the materials and resources on the site. Rocks from the brick factory were reused in landscape structures that help stabilize the soil and manage water while shaping the terrain. Materials that would otherwise have been discarded were reprocessed into permeable paving, returning to the land in a new form.

Wetlands, vegetation, water systems, material cycles, and daily activities now operate as one connected whole. The landscape is not merely an embellishment around the architecture, but a working part of the ecosystem.

The ASLA jury described the project as "A beautiful multivalent project. Interesting, engaged process."

Integrating Sustainability into Daily Operations

Today, Integral continues to evolve. Production here has never stopped because of ecological restoration, and nature has not retreated because of industrial activity. Manufacturing, wetlands, plants, the community, and daily activities coexist on this land, constantly evolving as Integral grows.

That may be the deeper significance of Integral winning this award. From degraded land to an ecological garden, Integral explores how manufacturing, ecology, and human can coexist in harmony within a Sustainable Development Garden

Looking ahead, Integral will continue to build on its own experience, working with research institutions and industry partners to explore new possibilities for sustainable development in the textile and apparel industry.

Integral's landscape was designed by P Landscape (PLA), headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. PLA brings together professionals from various fields, including landscape architects, horticulturists, and artists. Over the years, PLA and Integral have based their work on the site's original topography, hydrology, and ecological conditions, combining landscape design with ecological restoration, resource cycling, and the long-term operation of the garden, jointly driving this degraded land to gradually regain its vitality. Winning the ASLA Professional Award is an important reflection of the international professional recognition of the fruitful collaboration between the two parties.

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