Design update
Including news of a wooden chapel in the Bavarian Forest and the finalists for the SGD Awards 2020
Wooden Chapel by architect John Pawson is one of seven new rest stops along a cycling path through the Bavarian Forest. The brief was to create a space for quiet contemplation as well as a sanctuary from the elements, primarily using timber for its construction. Pawson chose trunks of Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii), opting to keep the timber as close as possible to its natural state, and stacked 144 trunks, 7m high so that they look like a pile of logs stacked up to dry. A square opening in one wall frames the view of the landscape, which includes a church spire, while to its side a simple cross has been carved into the wall and filled with coloured glass. johnpawson.com
BALI AWARDS 2019
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Aralia Garden Design was joint winner of the Design Excellence Award for projects over £100K at this year’s BALI awards. Its winning project in Hertfordshire uses Corten steel elements and natural stone to link three spaces, including a driveway garden, a contemporary courtyard, and the original walled garden (shown), which features naturalistic planting, a wildflower meadow and a natural swimming pond. It shared the prize with designer Rosemary Coldstream for a garden in Hampstead that uses pleached trees to create symmetrical tree heights on either side of a two-and-half-acre private garden. baliawards.co.uk
VERTICAL FORESTS
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An initiative to create a greener Cairo includes the construction of three cube-shaped buildings clad in plants. The buildings, designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti with local partner Shimaa Shalash and landscape designer Laura Gatti, will be similar to the towers of Milan’s Bosco Verticale (also designed by Boeri and Gatti) and will be 30m high and wide. Each one can accommodate 350 trees, more than 14,000 shrubs and feature 100 different species of plants. It’s estimated that this vertical forest – Africa’s first – will absorb around seven tons of carbon dioxide and produce eight tons of oxygen a year. stefanoboeriarchitetti.net
TUNNEL OF LIGHT
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Bifröst, a light installation created by French designers David Lesort and Arnaud Giroud of Studio Pitaya will form part of the Christmas illuminations at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In Norse mythology, Bifröst was a burning rainbow bridge that reached between the realms of the living and the gods. At Kew it will be a tunnel made up of 20 arches of LED lights across Camellia Walk that will create three colour waves. Set near the beginning of the light trail, the tunnel will guide visitors to other illuminations, which include a waterfall of lights designed by Brighton-based studio ITHACA, on Kew’s Treetop Walk. pitaya.fr
SGD AWARDS
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Among the finalists announced for the SGD Awards 2020 are restored formal gardens in Co Limerick, Ireland, designed by Edward Freeman, a cliff garden in Bermuda by Andy Sturgeon, and a modern meadow garden in Kent (shown) by Mandy Buckland. In total 23 projects have been shortlisted, across 13 categories, including the new Beth Chatto Award for gardens that show creative, ecological use of materials, and planting that maximises sustainability, creating places for pollinators and wildlife. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 3 January 2020. sgd.org.uk
NEW GARDEN SHOW
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James Basson, Inch Lim, Alistair Baldwin and Matt Keightley were among the leading international designers who created show gardens at China’s new Wuhan World Flower Show, in October. The 10m x 20m gardens were inspired by different plant regions of the world and will be permanent additions to the park where the show takes place. Matt Keightley’s design (shown) was an imagined courtyard space in which a stoneedged pool was framed by layered planting that featured tall, stone pines among beds of grasses and perennials in shades of white and purple.
RUIN INSTALLATION
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Italian sculptor Edoardo Tresoldi, has created a new site-specific artwork for Arte Sella, an open-air museum in Italy’s Trentino valley.
Simbiosi (Italian for symbiosis) is an imaginative reconstruction of an existing ruin that uses wire mesh to form the outline of the structure. The 5m-high mesh extension of the re-shaped stone base creates a new kind of ruin that, thanks to its transparency, sits lightly on the land while also providing an intimate space for contemplation and rest. The open-air gallery reopened in the spring after a storm in 2018 destroyed much of the park. artesella.it/en
LEGACY CHAIR
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As part of the London Design Festival’s Legacy project, the leaders of some of London’s cultural institutions were invited to collaborate with designers to create a legacy piece of personal or professional relevance to them. One of the most striking pieces was this chair, designed by Tomoko Azumi of tna design studio for Kwame KweiArmah, artistic director of London’s Young Vic Theatre. The shape of the chair was inspired by the slave ships that carried Kwei-Armah’s ancestors out of Africa. Like each of the ten pieces, it was crafted in American red oak, a sustainable hardwood species. londondesignfestival.com
WOHA PAVILION
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The design for Singapore’s pavilion for Expo 2020 in Dubai demonstrates the potential of plants to soften architecture and alleviate the effects of climate change. Designed by Singapore-based WOHA, the pavilion will be a net-zero energy building for the six months of the world expo exhibition thanks to solar energy and desalination systems. The ground floor will be lushly planted with tropical trees, shrubs and orchids. Three cone-shaped masses, clad in greenery, will soar up to the upper levels, which will be reached by a canopy walk. The air will be cooled by evapo-transpiration of the plants and fans that deliver a fine mist. woha.net