Cosmos Foundation receives two international awards at the Triennale di Milano

Two projects by the Cosmos Foundation were recognized at the 2026 City’Scape Paysage Awards, presented during the City’Scape International Symposium at the Triennale di Milano in Italy. The competition, organized by Paysage Topscape in conjunction with the Italian National Council of Landscape Architects, brings together projects from around the world each year in sixteen categories related to landscape and climate change.

First place: “Nature as a public health policy”

In the Landscape of Wellbeing and Care category, the project “Nature as Health Public Policy: Healing Gardens across Santiago Hospital Network” won first place.

Healing Gardens is an initiative that seeks to transform hospital spaces by incorporating nature, creating areas specially designed to contribute to the well-being of patients, families, and healthcare teams. The Cosmos Foundation has designed more than 30 gardens in Chile, 20 of which have already been built, directly benefiting approximately 70,000 people annually.

In its application, the foundation brought together existing gardens in Santiago, along with those under design and those planned, creating a network that links health, nature, and well-being, and that informs regional public policy. The methodology integrates physical, clinical, social, and ecological assessments and is developed through participatory processes involving medical teams, patients, officials, and local communities. A study published in 2025 found that these gardens reduce heart rate and stress levels, significantly increasing the sense of well-being of those who use them.

Special mention: a restored wetland together with its community

In the Urban Forestry and Landscape Requalification of Urban Spaces category, the Río Maipo Wetland Nature Sanctuary received a special mention.

Located at the mouth of the Maipo River, the sanctuary protects 60 hectares of coastal wetland that are home to more than 190 bird species, 94% of which are native or endemic. The site, which for years was used as an illegal dumping ground for construction debris, was reclaimed starting in 2018 through a collaboration between the Cosmos Foundation and the Municipality of Santo Domingo, and in 2020 it became Chile’s first intercommunal nature sanctuary.

Today, it boasts over a kilometer of elevated walkways, three viewpoints, and twelve museum exhibits, transforming it into an open-air classroom. The socio-ecological restoration program included training 169 local residents in environmental stewardship and the creation of a native plant nursery. The sanctuary receives over 40,000 visitors annually, including 4,300 students from 124 schools and 8 universities, and is managed under a tripartite governance model involving the Ministry of the Environment, two municipalities, and the Cosmos Foundation.

A collective effort

Both awards are the result of collaborative work with institutions and communities that trusted in these proposals and contributed ideas, spaces and funding to make them possible: hospitals in the Santiago public network, the Metropolitan Regional Government, the Municipality of Santo Domingo, the Ministry of the Environment and the communities that inhabit and care for each territory.

With these distinctions, the Cosmos Foundation reaffirms its conviction that nature is not a complement to well-being, but an essential part of the infrastructure that sustains the health of people and territories.