tadao ando’s green wall of hope incites controversy  image via the japan news

 

 

tadao ando’s plans for a monumental green ‘wall of hope’ along the shin umeda city complex may be thwarted. slated to run along the painstakingly landscaped grounds of the complex, the proposal has called into question ideas about creative identity and the conceptual limits of copyrights. the landscape architect responsible for the ground level garden design, motoo yoshimura–himself an osaka legend with 1200 garden designs to his name– has filed a petition to suspend the construction of the vegetated wall which is set to cut through the northeast end of the campus. the whole complex is a synthesis of the built form, environment and sky.

the umeda sky building, unusual in its delicate midair connecting plane and floating garden flits between an imposing presence on the landscape and an artfully blended mirror of the sky. while the architecture acts as the joinery between the firmament and the earth, the ground-level garden is a composed microcosm of the forest and water cycle. the philosophical specificity of the garden is the main argument against the construction of the ando design; namely that the 78 meter long structure would fundamentally change the identity of the original landscape architecture and is therefore a violation of copyright law. scheduled to be completed by the end of september, the ‘wall of hope’ would feature a stainless steel net designed to cultivate a swath of greenery as well as 900 complementary planters.

 read more in the japan news.

 

 tadao ando's green wall of hope incites controversy night view of the garden in question image © toshihiro oimatsu