The proposal, titled Spiral Garden System, by the Spanish architects Benet Dalmau, Saida Dalmau, Anna Julibert and Carmen Vilar, recently won second place in the iida awards 2010, organised by Designboom in collaboration with Incheon Metropolitan City.
The theme of the competition was “green” design in everyday life, in urban centres and in forms of communication. Entrants were asked to propose future solutions for the “coexistence” of people and their natural environment.
The Spiral Garden System is a helical metal structure with a decorative mesh that makes planting possible in urban centres. It encourages human contact among the residents who maintain it, and also serves as a bicycle storage and protection station.
As the architects themselves put it: “We wanted to submit an ‘environmentally friendly’ proposal, in which the natural element would be an integral part of residents’ everyday lives.”
The Spiral Garden System is a public space, the self-sustaining “green heart” of the city, cultivated communally by the residents of a neighbourhood and in this way encouraging them to meet and communicate with one another.
The lightweight structure is protected around its perimeter by a perforated decorative mesh, while a garden planted with flowers and vegetables unfolds along the inner ramp.
A central water and electricity supply system feeds the levels of the inner ramp, a water tank collects rainwater that is then recycled, and a central pipe gathers organic matter for recycling and composting.
The Spanish architects’ ecological proposal, the Spiral Garden System, offers a solution for the necessary future “coexistence” of people and nature within the urban environment.
It remains to be seen whether this or similar projects will be built in the near future…
Text: Katerina Latoufi (Architect)
