Lausanne Jardins _ Landing2014

In 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2009, the City of Lausanne has organised four events in a series of Lausanne Jardins, which have forged an international reputation for the event. This event, is a cultural festival which blends landscape design with reflections on the city, and has the particularity, the only one of its kind in the world, of creating gardens within the urban fabric, into streets, squares, abandoned areas, façades of buildings and rooftops. This results in the chance to create mutual relationships between professionals working in garden design, and intellectuals, scientists, artists, passers-by, and amateurs interested in how greenery can co-exist with the city.

The project plan for the Lausanne Jardins 2014 event is to test the possibility of creating pop-up gardens adapted to the urban environment, transportable and with long-term viability. It is as much about inventing new forms as about establishing a green presence in an urban setting.

The main goals of the project are as follows:

• Suggesting new ways of getting green spaces into cities. Creating the necessary logistics to allow a new kind of garden to be created, incorporating options for moving or transporting these gardens.
• Considering new and inventive ways of working. Examining ways of creating ‘prototype’ gardens which can be rolled out in other towns under the "Lausanne Jardins" brand name.
• Encouraging participation by multi-disciplinary teams, permitting a different kind of thinking about the subject, whilst bearing in mind and respecting the constraints inherent in the world of plants.
• Showing clearly the successive phases in the design and making of a garden. This point is as much for the public before the event as for those designers whose projects are retained.
• Creating walking routes in the city centre which provide a new perspective on the architectural and historical diversity of the city, and at the same time showcasing it.
• Enhancing the centre of Lausanne’s rich heritage of architecture and landscape, and at the same time shining a light on its hidden areas, which are little known to the traditional visitor or inhabitant of the inner city.

http://www.lausannejardins.ch/en/