The cornerstone of Lausanne Jardins, and what makes it so original compared to other landscape events, is the organization of an international competition. Since its beginnings in the 1990s, Lausanne Jardins has laid the foundations for a clear concept: a new site and theme for each edition, and a competition open to all to select the best projects for realization.

Teams taking part in the international competition are invited to propose an ad hoc project, choosing a location for their intervention while responding to the thematic challenges.

The competition was organized as a two-phase selective procedure: the selection of candidate teams on the basis of a dossier, in which 124 multi-disciplinary teams were invited to develop a proposal; and a jury, which selected 31 projects. All the winning teams received a study mandate with a view to the eventual construction of the gardens.