Gardening as an attitude
In collaboration with:
With the support of:
Jan De Wilde
Kollektif Landscape
yannmonel
Wagon Landscaping
Paris-based firm Wagon Landscaping focuses mainly on small urban “gardens”. Although their projects focus on a niche of small-scale situations, the modes of attention to and engagement with the landscape employed by Wagon offer relevant answers to the question of how we might rethink approaches to landscape in other typologies and scales.
Their work is often conceptually intriguing and daring, but based on minimal indentations, primarily concerned with the conditions for growth and studying the dynamics of soil, plants and water. A series of projects focuses on breaking up asphalt, exploring the aesthetics that come from the ethical position of leaving the material in place. They build most of their projects themselves; the office is also well-equipped with shovels, rakes and hoes.
The questions arising from this position are urgent. To what extent must we change our engagement with landscape, programme, transformation and maintenance to minimise negative environmental impacts? Where is the line between resource-intensive construction and the do-it-yourself approach of reusing Wagon?
Kollektif is a Ghent-based landscape architecture and urban design firm founded by Björn Bracke and Joke Vande Maele. Their projects mostly focus on green spaces in the city. They work on places that soften the experience of the city, and prioritise connection on many levels (including between plants).
A recent project is the redevelopment of Place Flagey in Brussels, together with the architectural firm Fallow, where special emphasis is placed on the interaction of green spaces with urban issues such as heat stress, water buffering and biodiversity. This project brings together attention to plants, soil quality, water and the social needs in the city’s public space.
What does the approach of “the gardener” teach us for the idea of a “project” within landscape architecture?
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This architecture lecture is a collaboration with Leiedal and Designregio Kortrijk and is part of WONDER, Creativity Festival.