Designers: ATLASlab and Forbes Lipschitz
Client: Jardins de Metis International Garden Festival, Redford Gardens
Status: Constructed in 2012 and selected for a second year in 2013
Description:
Though ever fleeting, the wind is a truly powerful force in the landscape. There is something universally moving about the sound and feel of wind rustling in a forest or an open field, the forces of nature rendered visible by the fluid movement of plants. Yet the ubiquitous nature of wind does not forsake its regional specificity. In Quebec, farmers and rural dwellers can attest to the beauty of blue waves of flax flowers trembling in the breeze.
Forbes Lipschitz partnered with ATLAS lab to create an installation inspired by the winds of Quebec at the Jardins de Metis International Garden Festival. In the initial stages of the garden, a grid of flax linen flags occupies the field, inscribing the changing movement of wind. The Wind Walls generate the force necessary to gracefully form the grass field into directional patterns, observed from the seating area. As visitors circulate along the perimeter of the field, the wind stream becomes momentarily interrupted by their presence, encouraging a direct relationship between the movement of both the visitors and the flax in the field. Here wind operates as a primary agent of design, ephemerally etching its pattern onto the landscape canvas.
