The Garden That Climbs The Steps by Balmori Associates
The New York based landscape and urban design office of Balmori Associates has designed the “Garden That Climbs The Steps” in Bilbao, Spain.
From the designers:
The garden climbs the stairs, running in undulating lines of different textures and colors. Envisioned as a dynamic urban space; it moves in time and with the seasons. Its lush planting cascades down as though the garden was flowing or melting, bleeding the colors into each other. In one gesture, it narrates a story of landscape taking over and expanding over the Public Space and Architecture, therefore transforming the way that the stairs and the space is perceived and read by the user. It is a garden of contrasts: the contrast between native and exotic plants, between the red flowers and the green grass, between the green grass and the grey paving. In form, the garden engages the horizontal plaza with the rising vertical plane of the steps and the upright gesture of Eduardo Chillida’s sculpture. Like the famous Spanish Steps in Rome, the garden is not only designed for visitors to ascend and descend, but for them to linger, and just be.
Photography by Iwan Baan
.
Jo Crandall on 01 Oct 2009 at 1:05 pm #
I love this. Makes me want to go to Bilbao Spain
Oliver on 01 Oct 2009 at 9:23 pm #
yes … very lovely – good idea to soften massive steps …
infidelnc on 02 Oct 2009 at 6:59 pm #
extremely nifty…i love cornflowers
bocefus on 03 Oct 2009 at 6:14 pm #
It’s like a garden up a hill, but with stairs instead. Genius!
danny on 03 Oct 2009 at 8:11 pm #
Interesting idea but a bit tame and could be taken a lot further. This is a conventional two dimensional flower bed, albeit on steps. Why leave it at two dimensions? Where are the vertical trees, the falling water? Has anybody thought seriously about the colours of the flowers, from a design point of view? Why not all white, or all blue, for a more dynamic statement. At the moment the colours seem arbitrary.
In this design the flower bed is located in the central section of a flight of steps. Why not locate the steps within a hillside landscape of boulders, grass, trees, water, you name it.
There is a supreme example where I used to live in Beijing, in the Happy Gardens Development, Chaoyang Distict. Might be worth a look…..
Dave on 03 Oct 2009 at 8:33 pm #
Most design projects can be taken a lot further, the reason they aren’t is usually because the budget doesn’t allow for it.
Designers have to work within the budget they’re provided.
Balmori Associates are certainly more than capable of creating a design with trees and waterfalls, but all of that stuff costs money, and unless they’re provided with the budget to do it, it’s not going to happen.
Norm on 05 Oct 2009 at 7:39 am #
I find all to often that irregular shapes look great on paper but do not transpose to the built environment all that well. Little things like grading get in the way, as evidenced by the ponding in the pictures, and budget as mentioned before.
Perhaps the budget could have gone farther without the irregularity of edges or perhaps there were other boundaries that we do not know about. What the designer imagines and the client allows can be at odds from time to time.
Still none-the-less the concept of slashing or ripping through man’s carefully constructed hardscape and allowing nature to reveal herself is one that I find engaging. Well done.
Barbara on 05 Oct 2009 at 10:15 am #
I think it is lovely. I did expect something a bit more though from the text. I agree that this could have been better…to bad the funds did not allow for some water. Still, it is beautiful, like a piece of art. The designers show both depth and talent.
jim on 06 Oct 2009 at 12:04 pm #
Dave,
I appreciated your budget comment. You’re right, of course, but I had the same thought as Danny the instant I saw the picture. “A good idea not taken far enough by at least half”. I still dream that budgets can be stretched and creatively augmented. This is the type of gesture which could have benefitted from some community energy and perhaps even some philanthropic support.
Usually, the antidote for limitations is creativity and energy!
Believe!
Thanks to Balmori Associates for a great idea!
sarahelizabeth on 06 Oct 2009 at 5:31 pm #
Spectacular and Intriguing. Wonderful design.
liv on 07 Oct 2009 at 2:21 am #
it might be a bit difficult to fit boulders around the steps… something about those buildings…
Herbalife on 09 Oct 2009 at 4:41 pm #
That’s pretty amazing. So out of place, and yet it adds character to an otherwise boring set of concrete steps.
mykal on 10 Oct 2009 at 12:36 am #
I agree with many of the comments. It appears that this concept was created in plan because it totally lacks perspective in the lower angles as shown by the photographs. As a landscape designer I can say that it would have been easy to add water and boulders (real or textured and colored concrete) to create a dramatic and lively environment that would be engaging and much more dramatic. As to the budget, there is no doubt that a fancy New York company had whatever resources they required and asked for. Give me the same budget and I am sure that I could have created something more dramatic.
Agustino on 10 Oct 2009 at 4:20 am #
It’s never a good idea to claim you could do better unless you know the whole story behind a design.
The budget was only 6000 Euros (about $8840 USD). No, they could not ask for more.
Nestor on 10 Oct 2009 at 6:35 am #
6k Euro only? I’m no architect but it sounds like a steal at that price.
Kristine on 12 Oct 2009 at 1:25 am #
Very very cool!!
allen on 12 Oct 2009 at 3:29 pm #
the first photo looks like a butterfly on a flower with a stem.
Volkan on 13 Oct 2009 at 8:08 am #
Nice
Laura C. Bielecki on 18 Oct 2009 at 5:23 pm #
I wish this could be done in Edmonton but I think the climate is far to harsh to attempt it. What a great living creature and form!
James` on 20 Oct 2009 at 3:52 am #
I agree that this is a very nice, and, in my opinion, unique design.
However, I do believe that simple things could have been taken further, and I feel that form has been chosen over practicality.
The biggest example of this is the area of the stairs which have now been rendered useless. I feel that a seating area or something similar should have been placed here to counter the issue.
On the whole though, I find it is a very pleasant creation!
Dave on 20 Oct 2009 at 4:38 am #
In the description the designers said:
“Like the famous Spanish Steps in Rome, the garden is not only designed for visitors to ascend and descend, but for them to linger, and just be.”
So the stairs themselves are a seating area. You can sit on the stairs, just as everyone does on the Spanish Steps in Rome.