By Architecture AND
A framework for participating, utilising a strategy of incompleteness. 'Garden beds' are delineated by industrial pavement paint, enabling the local community to complete the garden.
Project team: Andrew Burns, Thomas Gray, Alan Powell
Landscape Designer: Sarah Eberle
Contractor: Conways
Planting Installation: Sarah Eberle, St Mungo’s Putting Down Roots, Cityscapes
Location: London, UK
Year: 2013
Client: The Architecture Foundation, London, Southwark Council, Team London Bridge, Cityscapes
Supporters: CPM, Farebrother, MACE, NSW Architects' Registration Board, The Peter De Haan Charitable Trust
Architecture AND have converted a network of laneways in Central London into a unique urban park. The proposal overlaid a ‘harlequin’ geometry on the site, narrowing and widening to create complex perceptions of space. A garden bed was delineated by hot melt road marking paint applied to the low cost asphalt base, creating a zone for placement of pots, placed by the local community. A series of key marker pots in concrete pipes initiated the garden, with planting selection by Chelsea gold-medalist garden designer Sarah Eberle.
More a framework for participation than a landscape design, the proposal utilized a strategic ‘incompleteness’ to enable a sense of ownership by the local community. The garden is now an established place of solace and cherished by the local community.