4
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA
Agenda:
News and views, opinions and events
EVERY OTHER YEAR, ON THE WEEKEND OF AUGUST
15TH, VISITORS TO THE GRAND-PLACE IN BRUSSELS
HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO INHALE THE FRAGRANT
SCENT OF BEGONIAS AND ADMIRE THE INTRICATE
DETAILS OF THE FLOWER CARPET.
ON 4 MAY 2016, THE UNITED STATES ‘GOOGLE DOODLE’ CELEBRATED URBAN ACTIVIST AND COMMUNITY
ORGANIZER JANE JACOBS ON WHAT WOULD HAVE
BEEN HER 100TH BIRTHDAY.
When Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great
American Cities in 1961, she was a lone voice with
no credentials speaking up against the most powerful ideas in urban planning. The Death and Life of
Great American Cities was a reaction to movements
that wanted to clear entire city blocks and rebuild
them, believing beautiful architecture was superior
to crowded streets. The proponents of this idea were
influenced by Le Corbusier, who saw city neighbourhoods as crowded, noisy, smelly, and unpleasant — a
“relic of the centuries, a dislocated organ that can no
longer function.” People-watching could be amusing,
he acknowledged, but it could not compare with “the
joy that architecture provokes.”
Jacobs argued that this theory ignored everything
that made cities great: the mixture of shops, offices,
and housing that brought people together to live their
lives. By viewing cities as living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as mixed use development and bottom-up planning. Her harsh criticisms
of ‘slum clearing’ and high-rise housing projects were
instrumental in discrediting these once universally
supported planning practices.
The non-profit association Tapis de Fleurs brings
together a committee of illustrators, graphic
designers and landscape architects who come up with
scaled projects, with each edition illustrating a
different theme. Once the theme has taken shape in
the form of a model and symbols, the number of flowers is calculated and the combinations of colours are
established. The hundreds of thousands of cut flowers
necessary for the composition can then be reserved,
very long in advance. Several days before the
inaugural viewing, a full-size drawing is executed on
sheets of micro-perforated plastic that are laid down
atop the cobblestones of the Grand-Place. The flower
installation can then begin.
The robust tuberous begonia is the main component of the carpet. A native of the West Indies, the
hearty begonia is resistant to all weather conditions:
intense sunshine, violent winds, rain, cold. Begonias
come in a rich palette ranging from the most vivid
colours to delicate pastel shades and white flowers.
Belgium is the world’s largest producer of begonias:
60 million bulbs each year. Cultivated almost
exclusively in the area of Ghent since 1860, over 80%
of the total production is exported, primarily to the
Netherlands, France and the United States.