Thursday, August 28, 2014

day 37 #365artdesign



When the summer and the heat arrive, city life makes you dream of cool woods and of an uncontaminated wildlife, where one can shelter from the scorching sunshine and live in contact with the green world. It would be fantastic to be  able to just open the door and enter a secret  world; an oasis  in the heat of the city, hidden in the heart of your life.

I still remember the first time I had seen the urban oasis of my dreams; I was a little girl and I was watching an amusing movie starring Andy MacDowell and Gérard Depardieu; the movie, set in  New York, was based on the protagonist's passion for a fantastic indoor garden and on her determination to get it at all costs! I was so charmed by such a  fascinating space that  I've always added a touch of green to interior design ever since. Vertical gardens are absolutely my  greatest passion, but for a real oasis you have to look for something different. Of course the cutest indoor gardens are always the most secret ones, but I could find a few interesting ones.


 


In Italy, in Monza, a former theater has been transformed into a residential loft with a green heart. The designing was  complicated because of the  important heights (about 40 feet), and of the  particular plan. The windows too, that develop on one side, show the same huge dimensions. To be able to exalt all the features of the wonderful structure, the interior has been completely cleared out,  leaving just the space for a big green central heart surrounded by the most absolute white. All the life of the building develops around its green soul.








Not hidden but agreeably visible from the outside the mini gardens designed in Tokyo by the architect Ryue Nishizawa. It's just one  apartment that develops on several levels; a tiny lot, just 345 sq ft, exploited at the top of its potentiality. A  minimalist experimentation of an urban garden with  plants flowering in different seasons; each floor has its own function that merges pleasantly with the natural design. You can really live the  sensation of a life in strict touch with nature.





But how can you satisfy your fondness for a green space with tiny available space? In this case you have to  use your imagination and a good deal of design!
Even if you can't have large gardens or dehors, with two trees, two mirrors and the planning creativity of a landscapist you can get a splendid tree-lined avenue.
Proof of this is the project ”étant donnés” by the studio Mitnick Roddier Hicks that explores the world of illusion: infinite gardens in a space of just 3.5 mt.(11.5 ft).  This landscape concept had been conceived on the occasion of the contest exhibition "Mobiles! Gardens for a World in Motion" in Chaumont-sur-Loire in France. The need for making its tranportation and installation easy, excited the creativity of  designers used to measure themselves with quite different dimensions.




 The installation aimed at representing the difference between opposites: formalism and naturalism, luxury and frugality, durability and faddishness. Mirror is the artificer of vanity and represents how hard it is to see beyond the surface.  It's a landscape that unrolls like a rug, it's a “transportable” garden. The project takes its name from  the artist Marcel Duchamp's work “Etant donnés” (Philadelphia Museum of Art), an ambient installation based on the illusion of  form.

Now I feel refreshened up!










No comments:

Post a Comment