The ground up garden
The Ground Up Garden is a proposa1 for a rammed-earth labyrinth that harvests a good deal of it's primary material--dirt & clay--from the plot on which it's set. 'The following presentation combines the idea of terra-forming with the notion of the labyrinth or hedge-maze as a historic mode1 of Paradise that has been recreated in churches and gardens all over the world.
From the maze at Chartres to the Hedge Mazes of England, the idea of a calm, isolated center has been a thematic notion of Paradise, as has the idea of bilateral or radial symmetry in organizing that metaphor.
This proposal uses both, via six identical rammed-earth walls rotated around a central point to create entries on al1 four sides, with three isolated areas for repose within. The garden plays with the vertical relationships of heaven and earth, displacing the ground itself to frame a view of the sky for a person inside.
This project also attempts to highlight the materials in a public garden that make Our typical experience possible, and to use those materials in it's composition. A garden is pruned and tended by its caretakers, its soil is enriched and fertilized, and a network of pathways move visitors along: clippings, earth, and asphalt are materials 'behind-the-scenes,' necessities that are present, but rarely integrated meaningfully into the landscape of a garden itself. Few stop to admire the soil. Or the paved pathways or appreciate the shape of a plant based on what was pruned away to idealize its health and beauty. Soil, asphalt and prunings are meant to reconcile the garden with what is present or pared away to define beautv.
(Competitor's text)
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