Walking around the garden with the different people who work at the garden or have connections to the garden is an experience in diversity. Each person has their own unique view and their own stories. This communicates a depth of understanding of the garden coloured by passion, alive and vibrant. With each journey you take a different path, see through others eyes and experience the garden in a fresh way. Thankyou for all the journeys so far and I look forward to many more.
Stair series: The basalt work at Mount Tomah is one of the gardens features, making it 'Tomah'. The stairs series acknowledges the qualities of the basalt, an integral feature of the Garden. For me it has become part of the gardens identity. The garden is on a basalt cap. The soil has been formed through weathering of the basalt. The structure of basalt is often columnar, or shaped like a column. These short columns of basalt can be seen in the many walls around the gardens. These stairs at the edge of the 'Forest Walk' have be be regularly blown clear of leaves. The next image shows the first plan for one of the stairs: the width of the gauze across the stairs will be less so that people have more room the walk on both sides. I also wanted to respond in Australia to the Italian project 'Walking on Art'. In common is the use of a volcanic rock as a paving material.
'Walking on Art' is a project which focuses on the "Sampietrino" (also known as "flints") the typical stone paving used for the first time at the end of XVII century in Rome at St Peter's square (from which it takes the name Sampietrino). It has been used in the construction of streets, courtyards and squares, in many Italian municipalities, European cities and recently also in some Japanese cities. There is a strong presence of the "sampietrino" in the "Lazio" area, particularly in the towns of the "Castelli Romani and Prenestini", because the roman "flints" are, in fact, lava fragments originating from the ancient "Vulcano Laziale".
Today the "Sampietrino" runs the risk of being replaced by new modern material which is more suitable to modern life in the historic centres and more practical both for walking around and for the more silent transit of cars.
http://www.walkingontheart.it/
Sampietrino from the "Lazio" area, Italy
Paving in the car park at Mount Tomah
Meet Prunus Albion Park: a dancing trunk on the Plant Explorers Walk
Grass series: This plan for a Y of long grass in the middle of a mown lawn can be viewed from the Northern Pavilion as you look towards the African Heath. The Y echos the shape of the 'gauze cutting' which is the beginning of many of the gauze works. Check out this grass to find out how many different grass varieties make up this lawn and hopefully see at some stage how the grass looks when it is beginning to flower. A lawn like this is something many of us will never have in our own backyard. It needs watering, not as much as the formal garden lawn but watering and Mount Tomah gets more rain than many areas of Australia. Visit the rollypollie lawn in the Residence Garden- have a roll. 
The Eurasian Woodland: Tall Brown Barrels dot the slope between two people mover tracks. This is a steep slope, with a capopy high above. An area that people don't often walk into. Gauze works will be installed from the top to the bottom of the slope forming spaces worth exploring.
No comments:
Post a Comment