Garden Rooms by Yves Brunier ; Collage in landscape architecture

 

Museum park, Rotterdam, Netherlands

The Museum park in Rotterdam was originally designed by Brunier. The 40.000 sqm consists of four different parts, the orchard where tree's are planted among white washed shells, the cultural podium next to it for sports and cultural ( contemporary design made by Rem Koolhas), a seasonal changing romantic garden and a transparent pedestrian bridge, flying over a sea of flowers and lighting from beneath when the sun sets. What I like about this design is that the sections are almost like rooms, very different from modernist and contemporary landscapes that seems to be more holistic and contained. The idea of creating seasonal changing landscapes is crucial for aesthetic and attractiveness and a recreational area dedicated to physical activity creates the balance in offering a range of functional area. But striking is Burniers choice of representing it through collage, an approach that nowadays is comparable, and more visible through creating similar visualisations with photoshop. Once again, I adore the unapologetic freedom of expression through art, something that should definitely be reconsidered and revisited  in modern landscape architecture dominated by softwares.

The design process: Brunier tended to assemble every day objects to create quick models. A very interesting, outside-of-the box method that gets you thinking!

The special focus on the seasonal changes, and the choice of planting in general, is something I gathered from this research as really important.