installations unveiled as international garden festival opens

installations unveiled as international garden festival opens in quebec

the 17th international garden festival has opened in québec, canada, with a total of 26 projects on view. five new gardens are presented for the first time, and will remain open to the public until october 2, 2016. the temporary pavilions include a complex construction made of stone-filled gabions, and an 8 meter cone suspended above the forest floor. each project is intended to create a different environment for guests, using a variety of different materials and architectural gestures. read more on each of the designs below.

‘cyclops’ by craig chapple, phoenix, arizona, united states
image by martin bond

‘cyclops’ by craig chapple has been conceived as a singular object that frames views of the landscape. the scheme is made up of 100 eight-meter long tapering timber planks held in the shape of an inverted cone around a central opening. here, guests can enter the cone — experiencing it from the inside-out. the planks are fastened to each other at the innermost diameter and held upright by a 150 mm steel ring beam at the outer diameter. through the design’s transparency and porosity, the dynamic object seeks to blend with the environment.

‘cyclops’ by craig chapple, phoenix, arizona, united states
image by martin bond

‘le caveau’ by christian poules is a simple room constructed from stone and earth, designed as a place for reflection. the four-sided volume employs stacked stone-filled gabions, that allow light to filter inside the space. at the center of the room, a planted plinth appears to levitate serenely, suspended elegantly above the ground. ‘just as the plane levitates before us, we are held in the balance of the stone and life itself,’ explains poules. ‘the primitive plane symbolizes a beginning, while the seeds and the soil form the tilted horizon between earth and sky.’

‘le caveau’ by christian poules, basel, switzerland
image by martin bond

‘la maison de jacques’ (or jack’s house from the children’s fable jack and the beanstalk) is entered via stepping stones that traverse a ground-cover made of clay beads. once inside, guests wander between the rows of beans that wind their way up a wooden structure. these partitions divide the space into a series of hidden gardens, that form playful hiding places. designed by architectural interns romy brosseau, rosemarie faille-faubert, and émilie gagné-loranger, the project was developed over several weeks. seedlings were planted in may, growing more than three metres in height. clumps of red flowers will be in bloom by the end of july, before the beans can be harvested later in the summer.

‘la maison de jacques’ by romy brosseau, rosemarie faille-faubert, émilie gagné-loranger, québec, canada
image by martin bond

‘TiiLT’ by SRCW seeks to challenge the notion of the garden by creating an interactive environment that is part sculpture and part landscape. the transformable and inhabitable pavilion provides a place for visitors to occupy in a variety of different ways. each structure may be flipped between two orientations, responding to the position of the sun, and offering alternating views and shifting pathways through the site. the straw-like lightness of the structures and the white skin call to mind a field of flowers, contrasting the surrounding green landscape and blue sky.

‘TiiLT’ by sean radford, chris wiebe, winnipeg, canada
image by martin bond

‘TiiLT’ by sean radford, chris wiebe, winnipeg, canada
image by louise tanguay

‘carbone’ by coache lacaille paysagistes evokes the cycle of production as a parallel to the carbon cycle. a sculpted tree helps to illustrate the primary material used to build furniture. young trees surround the felled trunk, evoking feelings of new life and regeneration.

‘carbone’ by coache lacaille paysagistes, nantes, france
image by louise tanguay