Garden of 10,000 Bridges - 8a Biennal 2014

Edzo Bindels, Martin Biwenga, Adriaan Geuze, Jamie Maslyn Larson

Gardens are telling stories; they are poetry and have a narrative.
Our garden represents the human life, the path of people’s lifetime.
This path is a path of uncertainty and burden.
Many bridges over troubled water.
The garden design takes this path of life as a meandering, winding road – continuous and like a labyrinth.
The path through nature takes you over 10,000 bridges.

The Garden of 10,000 Bridges plays with perspective views, the idea of limits and the sensation of surprise. The combination of vistas to the surrounding areas of the exhibition takes advantage of the perfect location of the plot which faces the lake and overlooks the main features of the park.

The concept for the design is simple and strong. The path which winds through the garden only has one entrance and one exit. This narrow pathway meanders through the garden of bamboo, passing over and under each bridge. The paths which are only 0.8m wide, consist of fine broken black granite (gravel) enclosed on either side by a softly rounded curbstone of dark granite. The visitor is unable to see exactly where in the garden he is positioned or how much progress he has made. In these moments the visitor is limited to himself, possibly the person in front of him and the sounds of the moving bamboo.

The situation changes dramatically at the five bridges. The visitor climbs up the steep bridges to reaching the apex which sticks out from the dense vegetation and is presented with another spectacular view. Each of the bridges is carefully positioned to create a series of optimal viewing points, which are intricately defined by the surroundings.

The bridges draw inspiration from China’s rich history and translate it into a contemporary architectural language that is realized using modern construction techniques. The five bridges are realized using three different moulds, creating three different bridges typologies. Each bridge, consisting of two halves, is firmly mounted in place and painted in red epoxy. The exterior surfaces of the bridges have been modified using rubber-inlays which create a unique bamboo leaf pattern that references traditional Chinese paintings. The inner surfaces by contrast are smooth and only contain the handrails.

Planting
When searching for the optimal plant to form the base for our garden, we devised a number of specific criteria for plant selection. We were looking for a plant that was:
- Resistant and strong - to withstand the pressure of the Expo
- Attractive and green in all the seasons – to ensure the garden would work throughout the entire year
- Available to purchase as plants of 2 meters (in height) – so the entire surface of the garden could be densely planted and ready at the moment of the opening
- Visually dense - so visitors would not be able to see through the green structure
- Attractive, with fresh green from the ground up to a height of 2 meters
- Local, and referenced traditional Chinese garden design
- Well suited to the local micro-climate

Bamboo meet the above criteria, however it was necessary to search for the appropriate subspecies in order to to avoid maintenance problems, ensure the plant did not grow too high and was sufficiently dense at the bottom of the plant.

This ephemeral installation featured in the year long Xi'an International Horticultural Expo 2011. However the overwhelming success of the project and public interest in the garden, has seen it remain as an icon in the landscape, it continues to grow with vigour and be explored and enjoyed by countless visitors.

Autors

Edzo Bindels

Martin Biwenga

Adriaan Geuze

Design Director West 8

Jamie Maslyn Larson

Col·laboradors