Since 1990 the UNHATE Foundation in Treviso, supported by the Benetton Group, annually awards a cultural landscape that was designed and preserved with great sensitivity. Such projects are often unnoticed by the public, yet contribute significantly to a worldwide network of cultural heritage. Their central quality is the harmonious interplay between people and cultivated nature.
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And the winner is…
In this regard, this year’s winner is no exception: the jury recently awarded the 30th Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens to the tea plantations in Dazhangshan, located along the slopes of Dazhang Mountain in southeastern China. For centuries the cultivation of tea on terraced hillsides has been a characteristic feature of this region: hedges meticulously shaped into waves, surrounded by mountain forests and paddy fields in the valleys – a landscape that seems out of time, particularly when considering the increasingly industrialized production of crops around the world.
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This landscape image results from the work of a group of farmers who formed a cooperative in 2001. The aim was to preserve this unique cultural landscape, first mentioned in Lu Yu’s (703-804) “The Classic of Tea”, and to continue developing it in a contemporary way. The cooperative currently comprises about a dozen family-owned farms that cultivate nearly 10,000 hectares of land – including tea plantations covering more than 500 hectares – by adhering to the principles of organic agriculture. The Dazhangshan Organic Tea Farmer Association recently also received the certification of the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, FLO. The certification strengthens the cooperative’s marketing activities, and the Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens inspires people to rethink the way they act as consumers. While the prize alone is insufficient to preserve cultural landscapes, it nevertheless helps make the public aware of such exemplary landscape treasures.
The MeMo house, in the Northern District of Buenos Aires, is the result of an experimental work carried out on the one hand, by the architects’ and the landscape designers’ offices and, on the other hand, the owner.
“When we started the project, we knew we wanted a garden which would grow all over the place” —says one of the lead architects—, “But one of the first things the owner said was ‘I don’t want to mow any lawn and I don’t want a high maintenance garden’”. This became the basis for the design and it turned into an obsession of sorts for the entire team. Ignacio Fleurquin, one of the lead landscape designers, explains that they called a plant specialist for the pampas, delta and river areas as soon as they became aware of how precisely this project had to be thought out.
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The team worked with the key objective of creating a house that would also be a garden and a garden that would not be a typical one. No watering, no mowing, no maintenance, no introduced species, all of which would mean a somehow “wild” garden. The owner actually ended up being the one in charge of finding and planting appropriate species. The plant specialist provided a long list of native vegetation, with common and scientific names, some of which were really hard to find even at local natural preserves. However, she found many of the plants in the countryside, either at the sides of the road or simply growing out of other species.
When the house was finished and the planting process began, she had collected 4,000 plants (cuttings, seedlings and from plant hunting). From this total figure, 60% germinated. Later on and to this day, with the garden settled, she keeps discovering unexpected flowers and fruits such as tomatoes growing out from small cherry trees or native clovers coming out of the earth. Even more surprising, she picked 130 kilograms of globe zucchini, squash and other vegetables harvested during her first season there.
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The lot has a frontage of 8.66 meters and extends 50 meters deep. In order to guarantee sunlight access to all rooms in the house, the architects created a central patio which is also the spot where outdoor stairs lead to the first and second floor terraces. Bordered by ramps covered with plants that seem to pull the front and back gardens up to the roof level, these concrete stairs become the ultimate connecting component.
The many ambiances of the house become part of an intimate journey which, beginning on the ground floor, ends at the roof level, opening onto both the front and the back of the lot. The main bedroom opens onto a terrace-like area, at the first level, and the green roof becomes the final room to be enjoyed. “This is the most private and also the most exposed room in the house”, states the owner.
All green areas in the project collect rain water which is stored in an underground tank located in the front garden and reused for irrigation purposes. Solar panels and other passive cooling strategies such as cross ventilation help reduce the energy consumption of the project.
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Location: Northern district, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Landscape Plan: Estudio Bulla (Ana García Ricci, Lucía Ardissone and Ignacio Fleurquin)
Architectural Plan: BAM! arquitectura (Gonzalo Bardach and Matías Mosquera)
Landscape Consultant for use of native plants: Dr. Gabriel Burgueño
Bulla design team: Alejandra Yamasato, Pablo Rubio
Lot area: 430 m2, Built area: 215 m2
Green roofs: 133 m2
Date of completion: 2017, ongoing process
Photography: Jeremías Thomas
This year the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche dedicates the International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens to an impressive and historically significant site in Ireland: the Céide Fields site near Ballycastle, a small village on the north coast of County Mayo.
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The Céide Fields site consists of a Neolithic agricultural landscape with a geometric pattern of man-made structures. The place is characterized by an interplay of landscape, archaeology and human activities.
The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens is a study and care campaign for a place that is particularly rich in natural, historical and creative values. Since 1990, the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche has organized the event annually.
Programme of the public events:
Saturday 12th May
Treviso, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, 9.30 am-1.30 pm
public seminar on the award-winning site
Treviso, Municipal Theatre, Corso del Popolo 31, 5-7 pm
public ceremony of the Carlo Scarpa Prize
Sunday 13th May
Treviso, Church of San Teonisto, Via San Nicolò 31, 6 pm
concert for Céide Fields: Ancient Irish Music
The Portland Japanese Garden is an urban project in Oregon designed by Kengo Kuma. It features a central courtyard and buildings topped with pagoda-style, green roofs. Kuma won the commission through an international competition – the Japanes Garden is the offices’ first public commission in America.
The Portland Japanese Garden
Originally designed by Takuma Tono, a professor at Tokyo Agricultural University, the Japanese garden opened in 1967. The expansion from 2017 entailed the creation of three new gardens: a moss hillside garden, a bonsai terrace and a tea flower garden.
Part of the project was to move the park’s main entrance to the base of the hill where a new water garden with cascading ponds welcomes visitors. The architects explain it as a “transition from city to tranquillity”.
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New Cultural Village
Existing space within the Portland Japanese Garden was used to create a new Cultural Village including galleries, a multipurpose room, a library and a gift store. Village House, Garden House and Tea House create a trio organised around a central courtyard. The scheme was influenced by Japanese gate-front towns that surround sacred shrines and temples.
The buildings consist of steel and glass wrapped with wood battens and topped with overhanging, tiered roofs that aim to recall pagodas. The top level of the roofs are covered in greenery to help absorb rainwater and prevent run-off. “From a design perspective, the living roofs are likened to the thatched roofs of traditional gardens in Japan,” the architects explain.
The west end of the village is lined by a medieval-style granite wall that stretches 185 feet (56 metres). It was constructed using traditional tools and techniques, with the process being led by a 15th-century master stonemason.
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The Flying Garden was designed by architects Lapo Ruffi and Angiola Mainolfi. The garden is situated in the heart of the Tuscan town of Pistoia and was designed for the city’s children,
offering them a space filled with nature and art. The lawn of the garden is dotted with old trees and colourful art pieces.
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A concrete walkway acts as a border and separates the lawn from two surrounding buildings and a stretch with varied plantings. Stroll- ing along the walkway, the visitors can enjoy constantly alternating views of the garden and its eight sculptures. The buildings were restored with the intention of providing a neutral backdrop to the garden design. They are bordered by a wooden terrace that separates them visually from the surrounding greenery.
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The artistic framework of the garden was created in collaboration with artists Luigi Mainolfi, Gianni Ruffi, Alessandro Mendini and Francesco Mendini, who each contributed to it with playful art pieces.
Photos: Lapo Ruffi
Read the full article in Topos 95 – Light
Boomslang – tree snake – is the nickname given to the new Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway. It is an appropriate label for the airy footbridge that winds its way through the treetops of the Arboretum in Cape Town’s Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
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A spicy fragrance in the warm, humid air that lingers between the trees lures the visitor who listens in awe to the unfamiliar birdsong. Despite the soaring temperatures, this certainly is quite a retreat! The visitor’s facial features relax noticeably on entering the opulent Arboretum. The woodland of southern African trees and grasses is set in the Botanical Gardens against the northern slopes of the Table Mountain, facing inland and far away from Cape Town’s traffic, noise and smog.
A Cultural Heritage
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden was created in 1913. The name means Kirsten’s forest and is thought to originate from a family with the name Kirsten who are presumed to have owned the land. At the time the farmland was untended and over-grown. It was British botanist Harold Pearson, driven by his farsightedness and commitment, who recognised the farmland’s potential as a garden. Pearson had taken on a chair in botany at South African College and was looking for suitable terrain for his research. Kirstenbosch was then created as the first garden in the world uniquely for indigenous flora.
Today Kirstenbosch is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Among the highlights of any visit is the Arboretum, the term “highlight” taking on a very literal meaning: for the Garden’s 100th anniversary a walkway – the so called Boomslang – was built that passes between the treetops. It is a very special place: Mulch paths wind their way through over 450 southern African tree species, many from the subtropical regions of eastern South Africa, which grow well on these warm north-facing slopes of the Garden. The Garden’s administration is keen to point out the following species: stink-wood, knobwood, pigeon wood and in particular a magnificent tree aloe: it is 18 metres tall and a feast for the eyes when it blossoms in winter (June). The Arboretum also displays shade-loving herbaceous perennials, shrubs and bulbs that grow in the middle and understorey, or on forest margins.
Building between the Trees
The incline of the Arboretum had inspired those in charge of the South African bio-diversity institute to create a special attraction for visitors: to enable the blossom, leaves, birds, insects and the not all too infrequent “boomslang” (tree snake) to be seen from close up, the new Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway was created on the uphill side of the Arboretum. A precondition for its construction was that it would require little maintenance and would not hinder the tree life. The Walkway was designed to lead away from the incline, to the treetops and back. Architect Mark Thomas was just the man for the job: from the beginning he had in mind a “sinuous, lightweight, non-intrusive steel structure”, winding its way through the trees. This is how it came to be dubbed the Boomslang.
The holes for the column footing were dug out by hand at 12-metre intervals and filled with concrete. The workers were under strict supervision in order to prevent any damage to the roots. Botanist Adam Harrower was involved in the planning from the start and helped to design the route taken by the Walkway. In places he projected an existing path up into the air, thus avoiding a need to fell any trees. At one point, a hole was even incorporated into the Walkway in order to accommodate one of the tree trunks.
Read on in Topos 93 – Fragile Landscapes.
The Boomslang – Kirstenbosch Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway, Cape Town, South Africa
Client: SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute)
Architects: Mark Thomas Architects, Cape Town, with Chris Bissett
Engineer: Henry Fagan and Partners, Cape Town
Steel structure: Prokon Services
Botanist: Adam Harrower
Construction: May 2014
