straw flowerbed in arteleku
The straw flowerbeds in Arteleku will be transferred to the planned riverside park on the banks of the river Urumea in about four year’s time. They will obviously be quite different from the way they are now. The transitory garden will be with us for these next four years.
The short life of the gardens actually brings out its potential and makes us work with new concepts on how to envisage elements in this garden in a way you wouldn’t consider with traditional flowerbeds.
In the straw flowerbeds, we have worked with the idea of time. The reason why is that time is the most important dimension of understanding what you’re looking at. The elements of a garden change with the passing of time. They grow or whither and this is continually happening on different time scales: a day (light, sun-shade, dryness- wetness); in each season (flowering in Spring and leaves changing colour in Autumn) and in the comings and goings of every year.
We created the flowerbeds when we remodelled Arteleku. It’s 4,000 metres squared and contains two different areas: the straw area and the one shaded by poplar trees.
In the straw area we’ve used about 800 bales to make a wide flat surface. Straw is the sterile offspring of today’s industrialized farming. But straw rots with the passing of time and becomes fertile land. As we approach the first anniversary of the beds and the rotting process has started to kick in, the original geometry and texture has completely changed. In the beginning all was flat and clean, but the shade of the aubergines we planted in Spring and the wet weather this year have caused the bales to rot quickly. The surface is sinking. Things we never planted or tended have started to appear there. At first, three types of wild mushroom started growing and they were soon joined by different plants from seeds carried to us by the wind. New shapes and textures that nobody foresaw have appeared. Nature has started to express itself in its own way. That was what we most considered when we designed the garden. Unlike normal gardens, we leave the upkeep to nature and anything that starts growing there will be free to do so.
iñigo segurola: paisajista
juan iriarte: paisajista
alex mitxelena: arkitektua
jon muñiz: paisajista
The short life of the gardens actually brings out its potential and makes us work with new concepts on how to envisage elements in this garden in a way you wouldn’t consider with traditional flowerbeds.
In the straw flowerbeds, we have worked with the idea of time. The reason why is that time is the most important dimension of understanding what you’re looking at. The elements of a garden change with the passing of time. They grow or whither and this is continually happening on different time scales: a day (light, sun-shade, dryness- wetness); in each season (flowering in Spring and leaves changing colour in Autumn) and in the comings and goings of every year.
We created the flowerbeds when we remodelled Arteleku. It’s 4,000 metres squared and contains two different areas: the straw area and the one shaded by poplar trees.
In the straw area we’ve used about 800 bales to make a wide flat surface. Straw is the sterile offspring of today’s industrialized farming. But straw rots with the passing of time and becomes fertile land. As we approach the first anniversary of the beds and the rotting process has started to kick in, the original geometry and texture has completely changed. In the beginning all was flat and clean, but the shade of the aubergines we planted in Spring and the wet weather this year have caused the bales to rot quickly. The surface is sinking. Things we never planted or tended have started to appear there. At first, three types of wild mushroom started growing and they were soon joined by different plants from seeds carried to us by the wind. New shapes and textures that nobody foresaw have appeared. Nature has started to express itself in its own way. That was what we most considered when we designed the garden. Unlike normal gardens, we leave the upkeep to nature and anything that starts growing there will be free to do so.
iñigo segurola: paisajista
juan iriarte: paisajista
alex mitxelena: arkitektua
jon muñiz: paisajista
