World Horticultural Expo

"From the manicured forms of French estates to the sculptural gestures of Japanese gardens, the adjectives we use to describe a garden are often subject to the characteristics of the plants (or lack thereof) that grow there. No wonder horticultural research and experimentation have long been a fascination of scientists and gardeners alike. Which is why The World Horticultural Expo, slotted for 2011 and located in the city of Xi’an in China, will gain tremendous attention. The commission of designing the event’s masterplan was recently given to winning design team, Plasmastudio and Groundlab. The project, entitled The Flowing Gardens, was inspired by the convergence of the different types of expertise that will be brought together by this event; principally horticulture and technology, and landscape and architecture.

The design will include an exhibition hall, several conservatories, and a park that will surround an artificial lake. We think the endeavor sounds a bit like the World’s Colombian Exposition, circa 1893, but we will overlook the similarity because the event will have trees and flowers, and all sorts of horticultural goodness — and lots of it!

The conceptual masterplan (found below) is strikingly similar to an estuary. The circulation flow begins as a single stream, and then broadens, branching out to form the borders of garden spaces. This type of flowy circulation appears to follow Frederick Law Olmsted’s principles of meandering, however, the conceptual masterplan also leaves several strangely-shaped interior spaces that likely need to be resolved. The same strange shapes appear in the top rendering, where garden paths encompass separate garden plots — effective in creating controlled botanical exhibitions but ineffective in creating an experience that feels like a walk through nature.

Also unusual in this design, and perhaps indicative of the intentions of the designers, is that the flowy circulation heavily influenced the buildings in the conceptual phase. It isn’t often that building forms bend to the will of the landscape design, but in this case it appears that the building forms actually mimic those of the landscape design as they extend out into the water.

The event’s site sits between the airport and ancient city center of Xi’an. As one of China’s four ancient capitals, Xi’an is an important cultural and historical center for the Chinese. The city was once a part of the Silk Road and is currently home to the famous terra cotta soldiers."

via Inhabitat

Pattern Making with Plants

Suan Nong Nooch, Thailand, Pattayan via travellingboard

via egardens

Performing Landscape

Recently I was brainstorming on an ideas competition for the Arts Center in Melbourne and exploring the possibility of integrating performing arts opportunities in public space - that the urban landscape can do more to facilitate performing arts than just allowing for enough hardscape space for the Spiegeltent to set up every year. I wondered if there were ways that the Arts Center could engage with the public on a more personal, one to one, basis and with children to ensure that the instituion stays relevant for the next generation. One of the ideas was "performing space", where all the elements in the landscape could be used for "performing", whether that be music, dance, theatre etc. For example, I wanted to redesign the standard green Melbourne street bench into a xylophone that children could play with. The closest realised project that I found in a precedent search was "Railings" by Greyworld, a standard looking railing in London which plays the Girl from Ipanema when you run a stick along them.

Sadly, the project architects I was collaborating with didn't want to hear about such minor details as the street furniture (or for that matter, the landscape) and the ideas were never communicated to the client but it got me thinking generally about how to extend the functions of street furniture, which is a standard public amenity that is installed all over the city. Then I came across this "bouncing bench" project by Bruno Taylor which I would love to specify for the next playground I am designing if its in production by then.



And playful fencing to keep the children in :) via Inhabitat

via pixelsumo

Pure Geography or perhaps Pure Landscape Architecture

Without Standards and Codes.
Oh to design without consideration for Public Liability.

El sendero by Teresa Moller

"Punta Pite is a 27-acre piece of land that follows the contours of a bay between Zapallar and Papudo, two sea towns located 93 miles north of Santiago, Chile. A residential development planned and built here between 2004 and 2006 takes its name from this place and is laid out in a way that surrenders to the power and beauty of the ocean. It was developed as a series of parts connected by a walking path, one part of which seems to be sculpted out of the existing cliffs, while the other part passes through a restored creed that were meant to create one single spatial experience of the site."

the Pruned article says it all...