The Basin Reserve as it looks today. But in the 19th century it was a canal basin.

Plans to restore the Basin Reserve as a wetland could win two landscape architecture students an international award.

Victoria University of Wellington landscape architecture students William Rei-Paku Hatton and Yousr Ali could be heading to Los Angeles after their fourth-year landscape architecture design was shortlisted for an AECOM Urban SOS award.

Their plan involves uncovering the buried Waitangi stream beneath Adelaide Rd and Kent Tce, and replacing what Ali called the "horrible cricket pitch".

MATT STONE Fourth-year Victoria University landscape architecture student Matt Stone's redesign for the Basin Reserve to Wellington Hospital. "This perspective illustrates how existing buildings can be adapted to focus on proposed wetlands within Newtown," Stone said.

The space between the Basin and Wellington Hospital would be transformed from "a total mess" into a waterway and green space, connecting the hospital to the waterfront.

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The design was inspired by the history of the area that was once a "super-diverse place which was a hub of culture and food production", Ali said.

YOUSR ALI Yousr Ali, from Johnsonville, and William Rei-Paku Hatton, from Hawke's Bay, imagined turning the Basin back into a wetland for their fourth-year landscape architecture project.

However, it had become a forgotten and congested urban space. "It is one of those places that is just kind of in the 'leftovers' pile. It is a space that definitely has potential ... but is currently dilapidated, underused and underserviced."

Although taking out roads and expanding the green space in an already busy area might seem counter-intuitive, Ali said the design was all about "quality of life".

The revived waterway would connect people of urban Wellington to the Maori history and culture of the area.

LUCY SWINNEN/ FAIRFAX NZ Yousr Ali in Wellington. She said she was "totally open to scepticism" about her project, but some people needed to push forward new ideas in design.

A total of 15 students redesigned the Basin Reserve area as part of the landscape architecture course that was run with engineers from the Sustainability Society Network.

The "intentionally provocative" designs aim to take "people out of their comfort zone", Sustainability Society Network Wellington representative Stu Farrant said.

The process encourages students to re-imagine the urban landscape 20 to 50 years into the future and how sustainability concerns will shape it.

YOUSR ALI/ WILLIAM REI-PAKU HATTON A sustainable redesign of Newtown between Basin Reserve and Wellington Hosptial designed by Yousr Ali and William Rei-Paku Hatton.

"The city council aren't going to be jumping out and building that tomorrow," Farrant said.

Hatton and Ali are among 16 semifinalists selected from 200 entries from across the world. The top three finalists will be announced at the end of the month and flown to Los Angeles to present their designs and receive a share of $15,000 in prize money.

The student competition is run by US-based engineering design firm AECOM each year to tackle challenges facing cities.