Walking Garden

Walking Garden is an on-going, experimental project that Strawn.Sierralta is developing to investigate the modern garden as a movable and minimal creation. Walking Garden migrates through the natural landscape like an animal, moving above the landscape with a minimal footprint. Walking Garden is mobile and does not dominate an environment, preventing other species from living there. It briefly occupies a location before moving on, allowing native species to continue to thrive. This version of the modern garden is seen as visitor to a reclaimed or natural landscape, not as an alternative to one.

Project Data

The Big Issue:  

Natural habitats and endemic plants need to be restored and reintroduced to their native landscapes.

Project Description:  

Speculative design for a temporary garden on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.

Concept:  

Create a garden within an ecosystem, instead of a garden that looks like an ecosystem.

Year:  

2007

Location:  

Metis, Quebec, Canada

Client/Sponsor:  

Jardin des Metis / Reford Gardens

Site:  

10 hectare site adjacent to the historic gardens, Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens

Environmental Strategies: 

Zero site disturbance.

Program:  

Temporary Garden

Scale:  

10 meters by 20 meters

Budget:  

$25,000 Canadian

Team:  

Architecture: Karla Sierralta, Brian Strawn

The International Garden Festival at Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens presents temporary gardens at the cutting edge of garden design, landscape, architecture, design and environmental art. Launched in 2000, the International Garden Festival has presented over 80 gardens by more than 200 designers from fifteen countries and has attracted more than 800,000 visitors. The theme for the 9th edition of the festival was “Fun and Games”.