Client: Pulp Arts

Overview

Pulp Gardens acts within the urban setting of Pulp Arts to create a unique sense of place that strengthens the biodiversity and ecological health of the landscape. In harmony with Pulp Arts’ mission to provide interdisciplinary facilities for artists of various backgrounds, Attention was focused on the metaphorically rich, mutually beneficial relationships that exist between plants and pollinators. Sketches from observation of pollinator insects flying from flower-to-flower at conservation parks in the area, and this archive of visual information– ephemeral traces of collaboration between pollinators and plants– became blueprints for composing landscape interventions. Most of the flight-paths delineate plant groupings, pathways for human movement, or above-ground planters. Pollinator flight-paths were entered into digital cellular automata to obtain grid patterns that embed pollination activity into the Courtyard water feature.

2 Acres
Native Ornamental and Edible Plant Species, Corten Steel Planting Terraces, Repurposed Corten Shipping Container Planters, Limestone, Handmade Steel and Terrazzo Furniture, Custom Pottery, Water Feature, Steel Pollinator Flight-Path Trellises

Goals

Each part of the property being transformed had a different intended use. This allowed for the integration of commissioned work of all types including furniture, water features and a planned future amphitheater.

Process

I worked closely with the owners of the property to design a cohesive landscape that served their intended goals but allowed room for my personal creative expression. We collaborated on material choices and made sure things felt seamless with the existing architecture.

Additional Information

While the main emphasis lies in adding biodiversity to the site, spaces are also intended for human use. Site-specific furniture was designed and placed drawing from the same process of using pollinator flight-paths to shape-find. The cast cement terrazzo Xyphloem Ottoman references plant cell structures known as xylem and phloem, while the heart-shaped Passiflora Stools reference the style and stigma parts of the locally native passion flower, Passiflora incarnata. Pulp Gardens creates positive developments in the ecological health of the site and the broader urban ecosystem, and serves as a location for deepening appreciation for the environment and its diverse inhabitants.