For free

Last Tuesday the Board of parks and nature in Gothenburg (park- och naturnämnden) decided on the budget for 2012. Among other news there will be no entrance fee for the 19th century park of Trädgårdsföreningen during all next year. Traditionally the park always had a fee, it was originally founded by some wealthy people of Gothenburg who wanted a nice backdrop for their sunday walks. As I recall the fee was really low the years before the exhibition called Göteborgs Lustgårdar in 2008, that year people were in shock that they suddenly had to pay quite a lot to visit the delicately renovated and renewed park. After that it has been something in between and thus next year: free!

Images above from the exhibitions in 2008. The two on top from a concept garden called Grandmother's jewelery box made by 02landskap for the occasion. Then some Bergenia cordifolia and Anemone tomentosa 'Robustissima'.

Week of color: yellow #7

image: http://peterhutchinsonartist.com/

The yellow week of color ends with an apple triangle by artist Peter Hutchinson. The text says: Yellow crab apples moved from living trees to a nearby location that had been destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Parícutin, Mexico. The ground is lava dust.

Week of color: yellow #6

image: www.ferm-living.com (modified)

At the moment we only have a sample of the Ferm living designed wallpaper Dotty framed on the wall. I wouldn't mind covering an entire room!

Week of color: yellow #5

image: www.christojeanneclaude.net

image: www.christojeanneclaude.net

At sunrise one morning about twenty years ago 1,880 people began simultaniously to open the 1,760 yellow umbrellas set up in a river valley in southern California and the 1,340 blue umbrellas placed in an other river valley in Japan to finalize the land art project The Umbrellas by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The artists wanted to reflect the similarities and differences in the ways of life and use of land at the two locations. Read more about the project here.

Week of color: yellow #4

Something written on the concrete wall of the hospital of Östra Sjukhuset.

Save the date: november 5-6 Release för lagliga väggar

Discussions about whether the city of Gothenburg should have legal walls for graffiti or not has been going on for quite some time. Here, for instance, is an article on the subject. Last spring however, our politicians decided to allow for some legal graffiti around the art centre of Röda Sten, an area which by the way used to be looked upon as a free zone for this kind of artistic expression but lately has been the scene of several arrests of painters. To celebrate the new decission Röda Sten will host a release party for legal walls 12-17 pm next saturday and sunday, handing out free paint, cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. More information will soon be posted at the Röda Sten website.

Week of color: yellow #3

Some time ago the landscape architects of our company, working in different cities, all gathered in Stockholm to exchange experience. We spent one day visiting other peoples projects and one of the stops was at the wonderful whimsical park of Fredborgsparken. The artist Annika Oskarsson has designed the sculptures of the park.

Thank you Frida for helping me find the information on this one!

An urban jungle encounter

Redbergsplatsen 11:09 am

A very old little lady was sitting next to a young man on the tiny bench at the bus stop .The young man was wearing shiny boots, black pants with creases, some sort of short black jacket and a tie. His head was shaved, his nose very eagle like and he looked very angry. As I approached the bus stop a thought went through my head that maybe ha was a member of an extreme right-wing organization of some sort. A third person appeared, a women who wasn't very old but not very young either. She walked up to the two on the bench and said, in quite an hostile way, mainly addressing the young man:

-This bench is supposed to seat three people. I'm sick, just so you know. I need to sit down!

I waited and observed. The young man stood up smiling, pointing at the place where he just sat and said:

-Oh, you can take my place, I don't need to sit.

The woman, quite perplexed, sat down at the edge of the bench and said:

-Well..., maybe there is enough room for you as well.

The young man sat down again, now squeezed in between the very old lady and the apparently sick woman and said with an even bigger smile:

-Oh, how nice to be seated between two beautiful ladies like this!

-Two old ladies as least, the very old woman said with a little smile.

-And beautiful just as well!, the young man responded.

The sick woman thawed a little and mumbled:

-Well, it's a little warmer to sit here under the roof than over there.

-And now I had even warmed up the seat for you!, the young man said and all three of them laughed.

Oh, our prejudices!

Week of color: yellow #2

The Four Seasons parasol in painted aluminium sheet by Nola. Imagine this with some deckchair style seatings in a circle of deep sand in a place that has nothing to do with the beach.

Week of color: yellow #1

Collection of leaves. Consisting of Acer platanoides, Malus toringo, Betula pendula, Rhododendron catawbiense 'Grandiflorum' and a misplaced fruit of Chaenomeles japonica.

Sneak peek: Sillvik

Last autumn I spent my days coming up with a new design for the beach of Sillvik, together with my colleagues. Yesterday some fun friends of mine who live near Sillvik told me that the construction work has begun so today I went to see the friends and the site.

The redevelopment of Sillvik is part of a project aiming to create accessability to some of the many beaches of Gothenburg and our plan for this particular one contains a bathe ramp which allows for people using wheelchairs to come into the water, a new bus stop, accessible parking, an accessible walk along the seafront, strategic paths throughout the area, many nice places to sit and ponder and a playground with equipment carefully chosen to enable people with special needs to enjoy it as well as everybody else. We got the assignment from park- och naturförvaltningen (the park and nature department) in Gothenburg.

When we came today the playing area was almost done. I'm very happy with how the fish turned out!

Play

Äventyrsklubben spreading some love from the stage of Plikta. The one on the right runs an inspiring blog called Göteborgsbloggen.

Today the grand opening of the revived playground of Plikta took place in Slottsskogen, Gothenburg. Plikta has been a place for playing since the nineteen twenties and the latest version of the park is designed by landscape architects at Tyréns. The theme of the new design is supposed to reflect different parts of the surrounding Slottsskogen with water, woods and open fields. I would have liked to see some tall see-through elements dividing the area into smaller spaces, some creative ground modulation and also some spaces protected by roofs. I did like the sculptural feel of some of the wooden structures and obviously I liked the whale happily lying there like a smaller cousin of the one in the nearby Museum of Natural History.

Gran

image: www.finelittleday.com

The very fine wallpaper gran (spruce) designed by Gothenburg based Fine Little Day brings an essential shape of our dark deep northern forests into our bright airy living rooms. The blog Fine Little Day is also wonderful by the way.

Trellis

image: www.nola.se

This trellis called Trellis from Nola Industries created by repeating cut-outs in bent steel sheet, was presented at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2011, which I didn't attend this year but maybe will some day!

Save the date: october 26 Mellanrum 28

The city museum of Gothenburg has had a great series of seminars on urban development called Mellanrum going on for a while. Next wednesday the subject will be the square of Skanstorget mentioned below. Read more here.

Save the date: october 22 Medborgarrum på Skanstorget

Over the years the square of Skanstorget has transformed from an important meeting point for the citizens of Gothenburg into a parking lot. Maybe it's time for another change? This saturday this will be discussed at the site (Skanstorget) alongside with a sit down city walk, parking lot poetry and thoughts about the future of the place in change for a biscuit. Read more here.

Skanstorget over time. Original images: www.hagakakel.com, wikipedia

Geometric mountain

image: www.depeapa.com

Landscape inspired design on this backpack style tote with original illustration by depeapa. Very pretty!

Save the date: october 25 Göteborg och Nairobi - socialt hållbara framtidsvisioner

The Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg will host a debate compairing visions of Gothenburg and Nairobi, addressing issues like how culture, architecture and creative industries can positively influence the social and physical urban development. Read more here.

Save the date: october 24-25 Arkitekturmässan

Next week there is an architecture fair at Svenska Mässan, Gothenburg, inviting all those who will influence the architecture and city planning of the future. I hope to be there!

Covering ground

I think the ground covering plants are some of my favourites, how they look rolled out like a carpet, defining areas and creating texture. I walked by this Waldsteinia ternata yesterday. It's very compact, low and shiny. Compared to the Geranium spp. in the background of the upper picture which is airier, taller, lighter and more matte, but still a great compact ground cover.

Transition Towns

image: www.ettannatgoteborg.se

This weekend Gothenburg hosted its very first conference on the subject of Transition. I went to see the co-founder of the first Transition Town in Totnes, UK, Naresh Giangrande hold an inspiring speech on moving from oil dependence towards community resilience. He shared some nice examples of what is happening in the UK, like the Cottage Farm and the community owned Handmade Bakery. Paul Sousek, owner of Cottage Farm describes his journey towards sustainability like this:

"Spent 20 years in market research, discovered Peak Oil in 2005, changed my life, quit career, sold house, rescued pension, bought a farm, converted to organic, built up a herd of native rare breed of cattle (Red Ruby) and sheep (Wiltshire Horn), selling meat boxes locally and nationwide on Ebay, converted whole farm to renewables for water heating, space heating, electricity (wind and panels), water from bore hole, running cars and tractor on home produced bio diesel made from waste vegetable oil, built a pond for fishing, planted hundreds of trees for wood, fruit and nuts, grow own veg, soft fruit, potatoes, keep poultry. In short built a lifeboat. Now spreading the message through Transition to establish an island of resilience."

Learn more about the transition movement here,  Transition Sweden here and Omställning Göteborg here.

"We have to start creating the structures which will enable us to be citizens instead of consumers." Naresh Giangrande