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, yet based on minimal transformation, primarily concerned with the conditions for growth and studying the dynamics of soil, plants and water. A series of projects focuses on opening up asphalt, exploring the aesthetics that come from an 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).
What does the approach of “the gardener” teach us for the idea of a “project” within landscape architecture?