Last week the sun beat down, the humidex was beyond bearable, yet the fourth year class persevered through conceiving, mounting and exploring twelve landscape installations throughout downtown Galt. The study of Contemporary Landscape, led by Elise Shelley, first tasked groups to investigate the pedagogy of a specific landscape architect who has been influential in the development of the profession. Through this understanding of an approach to landscape design, students were then challenged to test their own strategies through a temporal installation. Each explored our relationship to the urban landscape and use of public space while testing ideas of process and design execution.
Here is a tour of a few of the projects
The Social Circle
Based on work of Peter Walker
Chanel Dehond, Valerie O’reilly, Emily Clark, Anna Beznogova, Carmen Voda, Amanda Ghantous, Dorothy Leung
The Social Circle is a pop-up installation designed to create an intimate, yet informal place of repose in an urban setting. The landscape installation consists of cloth sacks that are filled with wood chips, arranged in a circle about a mature tree on a lawn in the Labyrinth Park. The leafy tree at the centre of The Social Circle is the beacon that helps to define the “place”. Visitors can sit, lean, or lie on the sacks in various ways and may reposition them as desired to form new social groupings. The arrangement of the rocks around the tree serves as a memory of where the initial installation began. Although the sacks may be repositioned, the definition of the circle remains intact. The use of repetitive elements arranged in a pure geometric shape is inspired by Peter Walker’s use of minimalist techniques, while the social function of the circle is inspired by Walker’s desire to create places of repose in urban settings.
The Social Circle will remain in the park for the duration of the term. Feel free to come be a part of this landscape installation!
Invisi-Fields
Based on work of Kathryn Gustafson
Brock Benninger, Jaliya Fonseka, Karan Manchanda, Matthew Lawson, Meaghan Murray, Sarah Gunawan, Tristan van Leaur
Invisi-Field amplifies the subtle conditions of an overlooked space creating a journey through an urban landscape. Acrylic rods exaggerate the height of the grass and map the site’s transient occupation. The transparent rods mimic the movement of tall grasses and delineates a trodden path through the site, inviting visitors to discover the subtle undulating topography. Perched at the end are a line of benches, the object of desire, which provide a destination and facilitate lingering views towards the river landscape below. As night falls the illuminated field becomes legible, connecting riverfront to streetscape. Drawing on the principles of Kathryn Gustafson, the intervention strives to reconsider forgotten urban space to create place within the city
Strawscapes
Based on work of West 8
Jennifer Beggs, Shuo Susan Wang, Stela Popovic, Adrienne Huang, Elissa Brown and Wei Xue
Strawscapes is a constructed landscape of 40 straw bales inspired by the work of Dutch landscape architecture firm, West 8. Working with locally sustainable material which is evocative of the agricultural heritage of Cambridge and reflecting on West 8s design philosophy of land reclamation through the creation of artificial landscape, the installation aims to transform this inactive passageway into a more interactive, socially inviting space
Sit. Eat. Play. Climb.
Leave a Reply