09. Éden

The ideal garden is a self-sustaining utopian place where humans, animals and plants live together in harmony as they did in the biblical Eden. A myriad brightly coloured flowers and fruit bushes are there to greet you as you enter the garden. Vegetables grow among the flowers, adding a final touch of perfection to this oasis of plants, each with its own remarkable properties. Shapes, colours and fragrances evolve with the seasons, competing with one another in bewitching their admirers.

The waters of a life-giving spring burst forth in the midst of the garden, filling a regular geometrical basin evoking the shape of an ideal flower and recalling the perfection of nature itself. 

The visitor’s path is interspersed with berries and fruits, from the mulberry tree to the red carpet of cranberries near the spring. A bed of wild roses, laid out beneath a pear tree, attracts butterflies and bees intoxicated by its heady scent.

A bench at the bottom of the garden invites visitors to linger awhile over the twisted branches of a corkscrew hazelnut tree, the Corylus Contorta, and enjoy the scent emitted by the velvety leaves of the pelargonium, also known as the fragrant geranium.

All plants are useful to human beings and animals. With due respect for nature, all materials used here are either recycled or biosourced.

 

 

Martine van Vliet, co-founder of LOOSvanVLIET, is an urban planner and landscape architect. Graduated from the IAHL in Boskoop / Velp in1995, studied urbanism on the Academy of Architecture from 1995 until 2001 and passed her state exam for both urban planning and landscape architecture. The studio she founded in 2009 with Freek Loos with whom she formed the team of managing directors of Bureau B + B from 2001 to 2009. She works internationally from Asia, Europe to Africa on both urban planning, landscape and public space and on multiple scales. The identity and context of the place is often a starting point for the design. She works on bright and durable designs with innovative solutions in which detailing is essential. Plantations form an important part of the design. Biodiversity, nature inclusive and climate adaptive design are important design elements in each design.

Patrycja Bukarowicz an all-round senior designer graduated from landscape architecture at Warsaw University (2005) of Life Sciences and urban design at TU Delft (2008). Her knowledge and experience gained in the fields of landscape architecture and urban design allows her to work on complex projects which requires multidisciplinary approach. Her competence and professional approach ensure that projects are complete and well thought of. Her ambition drives her on to create innovative designs. With every project she searches for the boundaries, what helps her to achieve unique spatial solutions. The con-cept leads the design, from vision to the detail and with attention to the long-lasting quality. Her strength is the integration of various design fields, especially where landscape and architecture meet. Her portfolio contains a wide variety of projects realized in Europe, Asia and Africa like city parks, pub-lic squares, roof gardens or indoor planting. For the last 10 years she contributes with her work to the growth of Atelier LOOSvanVLIET.

Aleksandra Chmiel is a polish landscape architect, graduated from Cracow University of Technology. Discovering different cultures, languages was always her passion, that is why besides her studies in Poland she decided to move abroad to study in France (ENSAP Bordeaux) and Czech Republic (CULS Prague). This experience gave an opportunity to look at the design process on a different levels and from a different point of view. During her travels she always tries to make fast sketches to catch the atmosphere of the places/objects,etc. which often is her inspiration for the new projects. While studying she was also involved in organizing IFLA Europe exhibition “Landscape Architecture as a common ground.” Since 2018, she is working at Atelier LOOSvanVLIET in Haarlem. Her ambition as a designer is to make urban spaces more liveable, sustainable and nature inclusive by researching on efficient planting and design solutions. She focusses on creating a special atmosphere in every green public space, so the the visitor can fully experience it. She takes care of visual presentation of the projects. 

Growing up in her parents’ plant nursery in Sicily, Cristina Di Paola developed a strong interest and passion for the dynamics of nature and the world of plants. She received a bachelor’s degree in Architecture at the IUAV Architecture School in Venice and then specialised in Landscape architecture at the University of Genoa. Her research field includes ecological design, nature-inclusive design, and the study of the landscape as cultural heritage and matter of identity for the people living in it. Cristina currently works in The Netherlands at Atelier LOOSvanVLIET and she keeps doing plant research in Sicily. Aside work, she enjoys volunteering with the Bird Life association in Italy (LIPU) and exploring the landscape on her in-line skates.

Elena Gómez is Spanish, originally from Tenerife. Coming from this small and natural island, she grew appreciating and respecting nature. After studying architecture in Spain, she wanted to focus on the integration of architecture in the landscape. This way of working is something that identifies her professionally, she is always looking for the perfect synergy between these two entities. The sustainability, innovation, uniqueness, and conceptual strength are complementing the design process. Before establishing in the Netherlands, she studied in Milan and worked in Bologna. During this period, apart from enjoying the culinary culture, she went in search of beauty and functionality, learning how to take care of the details, and to respect the heritage. She has worked at Atelier LOOSvanVLIET since 2018 hand-in-hand with the landscape team. They work on all project phases, from the sketch to the details, nationally and internationally. She likes to design by thinking about how people will experience the projected space and how will they make it their own. She also enjoys spending time researching new sustainable materials and innovative techniques to use in her projects. If she is not playing with shapes, volumes, colors, and textures, you will probably find her playing the ukulele.