Found were asked to design the Garden Museum’s exhibition: ‘From Garden City to Green City’. The exhibition explores past and present examples of urban gardening and green space within the city. The exhibits include artwork, photographs, drawings and maps that all display designs and ideas that contribute towards the vision of a ‘green city’.
Found developed the design by considering the relationship between ‘the grey and the green’ within the city.
The solution, a sculptural landscape created from an everyday building material; 2000 concrete blocks arranged in stepped monolithic forms, they create a dramatic environment for the exhibits.
Upon entering the exhibition, the sculpture is concealed behind a tall, dark grey wall that displays various introduction exhibits. The visitor has to move round either side of the wall, revealing a mountainous, monolithic landscape. Though the concrete block-work is wholly grey; it is raw in texture, contains water marking, and the shading to each 440mm long block varies significantly from the next. The sculpture almost reads as organic and help to bridge man made and natural.
The Museum curated the artwork on surrounding walls and within the concrete forms of the sculpture. Found Associates designed translucent boxes to house more precious artifacts, the boxes are slotted in flush with the lines of the block work.
Opposite the entrance grey wall, another grey structure conceals two screens within alcoves showing examples of realised ‘Green City’ designs that have been built, such as the Highline in New York.
To conclude the exhibition; at the rear of the gallery space a smaller concrete sculpture was formed to house a reading area for the visitor to reflect.
Services we provided for this project are:
Design Direction
Concept Design
Profile Drawings
On Site Attendance
