“While We Wait” is an installation by Bethlehem-based architects Elias and Yousef Anastas which illustrates the cultural claim over nature in the “Cremisan Valley”. Being commissioned by the “Victoria and Albert Museum” in London, the architects created a structure made of over five hundred specifically developed brick modules.
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A walk through the “Cremisan Valley” near Bethlehem feels like an escape from the confusion of the reality that surrounds this extraordinary place. It is a place where the conflict between Israeli settlements and Palestinian villages becomes spatially visible. When walking through this valley surrounded by hills and inhaling the fresh air, it immediately becomes obvious why this place is so important for the inhabitants of the area: “Cremisan Valley” remains one of the last green spaces near Bethlehem.
Tower-like stone installation
Dry stone walls from the Roman period wind their way through the hilly topography of the valley. Distributed across the landscape, several ruins of former stone castles structure the surroundings. Material, structure and orientation become one with the landscape. Suddenly the gaze turns towards an old monastery which blends into the topography in a very natural way. Since the 19th century it has been home to a community of monks. Not far from the monastery, a four meters tall tower-like stone installation appears, placed on top of a small platform between dry olive trees and fertile vineyards.
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Tactile relationship
“While We Wait” combines a tangible design with a discrete choice of material – brick – and therefore creates an atmospheric relation between itself and the surrounding stone walls. The architects designed the soil-coloured bricks with the help of computational design software. Computer-controlled machines translated the digital model into the actual product. Local artisans refined the bricks into their particular shape. By combining local masonry techniques with contemporary technology, the architects define the art of “stereotomy” as a central element of the installation’s architectural language. The concept of cutting three-dimensional solids into particular shapes enabled the construction of a self-supporting structure. Once the individual stones are interlocked with neighbouring elements, they can no longer be separated. The resulting gaps between the bricks create a tactile and visible relationship between the viewer and the natural environment.
Vulnerable landscape
“Cremisan Valley” is under severe threat by the complex political and spatial situation in the West Bank. The installation is directly adjacent to the recently built concrete separation wall between the Israeli and Palestinian territories. For this reason, “While We Wait” functions as a witness of the landscape that still exists to this day. It illustrates the valuable relationship between architecture and nature in a contested landscape. At the same time, it shows us in frightening ways how vulnerable landscape and nature are in uncertain times of conflict.
During hot summer days, the sealed environment of a city raises the temperature. Especially asphalt-paved areas reinforce that effect. In Montreal, the Arcadia Studio designed “La Vague”, a project which converts five parking lots into a refreshing public space for relaxing and socialising. 74 wooden frames are arranged around the urban hideout, creating the illusion of a wave hitting the pavement.
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Temporarily “Placottoir”
The designers were inspired by two sources: The first one is the invention of the Parklet in San Francisco. A very small park, which usually turns expendable parking lots into places with seating and planting. The parklets improve the sojourn quality of its urban environment and encourages socialisation and relaxation between the people. In Montreal, these areas are known as “Placottoir” – a place to chat. The second inspiration came from Europe and has not yet established itself on the American continent: Misters. This device consists of small nozzles, which release steam, cooling down the surrounding air by approximately five degrees Celsius.
Energizing Passage
“La Vague”, the French word for “Wave”, is 22 metres long and two and a half metres wide. The 74 wooden frames are placed around the passage and are offset in a three-degree interval. Together with its turquoise painting, the twisted arrangement is a reminiscent of a wave. 45 nozzles are attached to the frames and release the refreshing steam into the sculpture. Within the wave, people can sit on benches and enjoy their time between planted anchors. “La Vague” adds a playful and social component to the dreary environment of a grey streetscape and generates an action-reaction effect on pedestrians.
In Springfield, American artist and activist Matthew Mazzotta designed a shed-like house with an eye catchy feature: a cloud sculpture, attached to the roof. The cloud is part of a simulation of the natural hydrological cycle. The visitors should experience the function and our dependence on this system.
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Vital System
“Act Locally, Engage Globally” is the philosophy of the work of Matthew Mazzotta. And so is the philosophy of his Cloud House. Its purpose is to strengthen the environmental awareness and to explain the significance of the hydrological cycle, by showing its function in a very simple way. During rainy days, the roof and the eaves collect the rainwater to a hidden pool, underneath the shed. Once the rain is over, visitors can activate a pumping system by stepping on pressure sensors in the inner space. The system transports the water from the pool to the cloud, where the sculpture releases the water on the house. Special gutters direct the water into flowerpots on the window sills. The watered plants are eatable and represent the vital function of the hydrological cycle.
A Place of Peace
Beside its educational mission, the Cloud House is also a place of peace and relaxation. The interior consists of two vintage rocking chairs and a wooden table. When the cloud is activated, the House is filled by a warm and pleasant sound of the drops hitting the tin roof. Because of two missing walls, the visitor has an unobstructed view of the natural surroundings. The overall design of the Cloud House is very simple and focuses on the essentials.
New York’s Times Square got another attraction: The “XXX Times Square with Love”. The three X-shaped sculptures have nothing to do with the shady past of the famous place. They have the function of relaxing loungers. The designers from J. Mayer H Architects were inspired by the shape of the crossroads where the Broadway crosses 7th Avenue.
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A Progress For Pedestrians
During the last years, Times Square has undergone a positive development. After it turned slowly from a red-light district with high crime rates into a touristic shopping and theatre district, the place can once again build on its glorious past. A milestone was the conversion from one of New York’s busiest crossings into a pedestrian zone in 2009, making the world-renowned crossroads finally a pleasant stay for visitors. Since then, many festivals and cultural events have taken place. Also, from time to time, Times Square functions as an exhibition place for sculptures.
More Than An Objet D’art
One of the art projects that can now be admired is the “XXX Times Square with Love”. The work of the Berlin design office J. Mayer H consists of three X-shaped loungers where visitors can relax. Each lounger can accommodate up to four people, while the legs of the “X” are slightly bevelled. Thanks to this shape, people face and can communicate with each other or just enjoy the stunning views. The name of the sculptures refers to the digital age, where greeting messages are exchanged via social media. In fact, the bright pink loungers can be quickly recognized on webcams and photographs: on average, they’re posted around 17,000 times per day on Instagram.
What will happen with the marine environment, if we keep on polluting the oceans with plastic? Famous sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor wanted to draw our attention to marine pollution with his provocative art installation. In front of the National Theatre on London’s Southbank Jason placed a dystopian vision of a family picnic on a beach plagued by plastic pollution. Part of his artwork is constructed with microplastics, which were collected along the shores of Lanzarote. The installation should request consumers, policymaker and packaging producers to cut back on the use of plastics.
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Jason deCaires Taylor about his installation
“Through my work I’ve seen first-hand the deluge of plastic on our coastlines and swirling around our seas. The build-up of a man-made material like plastic in the vast expanse of our seemly untouched oceans is a visceral reminder of humankind’s devastating impact on our environment. Through Plasticide I want to bring this message back to home: our oceans, and the marine life which inhabits them, literally can’t stomach any more plastic.”
Claim for plastic reduction
Greenpeace Ocean Campaigner Louise Edge found out in her research, that 90 percent of seabirds now have plastic in their stomachs. Predictions forecast, that plastic will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050. She stated: „The problem highlighted in this sculpture would have seemed surreal fifty years ago, but it’s now a grim reality. All plastic is made on land and it’s here we need to see action to reduce the flow of plastic into our oceans.”
Duration of the installation: 23rd March – 6th April
Location: National Theatre, London, UK
The Place des Festivals in Montréal, Canada provides an unusual sight these days: 13 large illuminated loops have occupied the famous public space. These objects are part of the annual Luminothérapie which is Quebec´s largest competition for temporary public art installations. Most notable feature is the participation of pedestrians, who can play with the loops. The loops are a giant zoetropes, which is an optical toy, that was the ancestor of the animated film. Once activated, flickering images of 13 inspiring fairy tales come to life and can be watched by the participants.
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How does the loop works?
Each loop is two metres in diameter and can be entered by two people, who can activate the installation by pulling levers. A spinning cylinder, with spokes in its running tread, adopt the function of a zoetrope and making a series of still images appear to move. Together with music, the loop creates an animation of fairy tales around the watchers. By changing the tempo at the levers the speed of the moving images and the music can be influenced. The animations are also recognizable from distance and together with video projections on two adjacent buildings, the place is illuminated by flickering lights and images.
The creators
The Luminothérapie is an association of artists, which presents interactive and captivating installations in Montréal every winter. With their work, they want to stimulate creativity in urban design and digital art. Olivier Girouard and Jonathan Villeneuve, the creators of the loops, want to encourage the people’s imagination and participation in public space.
Architect Jean Verville wins coveted Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ invited competition for the development of Museum Avenue. During summer 2016, his elegant installation Dance Floor offers a lively landscape animated by an exuberant trompe-l’oeil. With Verville’s proposal the participants experiment movement, both free and structured by the course, to surrender to the pleasure of an impulsive action or casual wandering. Welcoming varied and unforgettable performances, Dance Floor shines a new dynamism to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ area.
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With paving made of more than 5,000 footprints, Dance Floor installation composed a stunning mosaic reminiscent of hammered gold, nod to the theme of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition Pompeii. The gesture, of an equally unexpected as sensational simplicity, traces some chaos proper to crowd and invite passersby to improvise steps on this huge dancing floor. Shaping a new urban intersection, architect Jean Verville transforms the pedestrian street into a giant interactive activity enlivening downtown Montreal with formidable improvised dances, while encouraging the visitor to build its customized tour within the works of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Sculpture Garden.
The architect
The practice of Jean Verville is on the fringe of mainstream architecture. For each proposal, architecture, design, museum installation or object, the architect uses the architectural promenade as material to develop the spatial qualities of his experiments. In addition to its award-winning practice and his significant international publications Jean Verville continues his investigations on architectural design process through a PhD at Université du Québec à Montréal.
Client: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Typology: Urban installation
Location: Montreal, Canada
Superficy: 3.000 square feet
Year of conception: 2015
Year of construction: 2016
Green Varnish is an art installation located in the courtyard of the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Saint Louis – a green, undulating field, made up of thousands of tiny succulents. The structure occupies approximately 200 square meters and turns its surroundings into an exuberant sculpture filled with life. Like a flying carpet, it seems to float at the edges, hovering slightly above the ground.
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Green Varnish was designed by New York-based landscape architecture firm Nomad Studio, who are known for combining art and design with nature. In their award-winning work they have focused on the social and environmental impact of landscape design. The picture of a natural tapestry that covers the surface becomes a symbol for disguising inconvenient facts and realities with the help of nature. Instead, the designers try to create a discourse about the need to completely re-envision our built environment and on how to find solutions to transform it into something authentic.
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Photos: Jarred Gastreich, Nomad
Read the full article in Topos 94 – City Visions
Green Varnish, designed by landscape architecture firm Nomad Studio, was the first installation of its kind, located in the courtyard of CAM in Saint Louis, with the aim of transforming and altering the space. A green fabric made up of thousands of plants floated in the space, symbolically covering the inconvenient facts of society. The structure occupied approximately 200 square meters and turned the courtyard into an exuberant sculpture filled with life. It was a natural tapestry that played with the architectural space, while provoking it.
The founding partners of Nomad Studio, William E. Roberts and Laura Santín, explored the necessity of hiding inconvenient realities with politically correct beauty: “Deep inside the collective awareness, it is clear we need to overcome major changes in order to cope with climate change. Currently, our response is completely reactionary and we mainly express it in two different manners: pure rejection or some form of green shift that enables us to continue business as usual.”
William and Laura are known for their intuitive approach of combining contemporary art and design with natural elements. Their work, which has been internationally awarded, has mainly focused on projects closely related to the social and environmental impact of landscape architecture.
With Green Varnish Nomad Studio is making an ironic gesture towards the ‘greening’ trend camouflaged beneath the mantra of sustainability, resilience and other words, which are often abused in the current world of design. The installation was displayed in September in Saint Louis, Mississippi. The second installation “2nd Act” by Nomad Studio will be exhibited in the CAM from May to September 2016.
