XIAN INTERNATIONAL GARDEN SHOW 2011 by TOPOTEK 1

Inspiration of unending curiosity about the other side in the world

2011-07-21

项目标签

设计公司: :; TOPOTEK 1
类型: :; Landscape
标签: :; International Horticulture Exhibition Place scale Xian Shaanxi

非常感谢设计方TOPOTEK 1 将项目介绍和项目图片授权gooood发行。更多请至：TOPOTEK 1 on gooood
Appreciation towards TOPOTEK 1 for providing the following description:

PHOTO © Geng Wang

There is an international dream fantasizing about the other side of the world. Perhaps it results from being the furthest possible distance? A completely foreign culture? An unknown geography? A common childhood warning of, “If you keep digging, you’ll dig all the way to China” is often an introductory presentation of this dream. The whole idea is a spirit of adventure and whimsy, and the unending curiosity of what can be found on the other side. With a garden to design in Xian, China, we couldn’t resist: What if we did dig all the way to China? In the garden we have created the result of this overzealous dig: the point that the hole emerges in China. At this hole we capture a precise point where one stands on the edge of one world and another, wondering what is possible of the other side? As tradition, a garden is a place that transfers someone into a ‘foreign’ space: from inside to outside, from city to nature, from one culture to another. This garden is the cusp at which two worlds are colliding, a foreign world entering China, defined by the visitor’s imagination.

We also see this hole as not just an object, but a spacial exercise to consider the superficial surface. Topotek1 has a tradition of provoking the very idea of a surface, and what it could mean in different contexts. The garden site provided to us is immediately thought of as a flat surface. But when we take the globe as our contextual reference, one remembers the world is round, and then the site is no longer seen as two dimensional, but a small piece of a three dimensional sphere. The sunken hole is a physical action to emotionally bring the visitor to the global context. As the hole is to have just ‘emerged’, the site is visible as an artificial grass carpet which is sucked down into the hole. Existing trees have remained, keeping the site as seemingly untouched. Underneath the grass, the ten meter wide hole is a concrete shell structure excavated into the earth. A glass railing surrounds the hole… one doesn’t want to get too curious… To further provoke the emotions associated with the garden, we take the literal shape of the hole and see it as a megaphone. A megaphone is used to address large outdoor audiences or to speak to people from a long distance. In our case we needed such an instrument to emit audio captured from the other side of the world.

Selecting Argentina, the United States, Sweden, and Germany as the foreign locations, one will be able to hear the other side of the world as they near the hole. Transferred through the hole will be soundtracks of the life on the other side: cows from the pampas of Argentina, commuters rushing among transit through New York City, the maritime life of Stockholm, and layers of history so audible among the streets of Berlin. These soundtracks pique the imagination of the visitors, transferring them away from China, away from the garden, away from the hole, and to the other side of the world.

PHOTO © Geng Wang

这是一个充满想象力的大洞，也许可以到达世界的另一端，那有完全陌生的文化，未知的地理。小孩子常常被警告“如果你不断的挖下去，你会挖到中国去。”，这个宣言放在这里却颇为适合。整个想法冒险奇特，并引发人们的好奇心。在西安做设计，设计师无法抗拒“所有的洞通往中国”这一说法，于是真的创建了一个已经出现在中国的大洞。这个洞的另一边是怎样的世界？同时从花园的角度考虑，这是一个转移“异”的空间：从内到外，从城市到自然，从一个文化到另外一个文化。这是不同世界的碰撞之处，而这一切由到访者的想象定义。

再看这个洞，不仅仅是一个对象，也可以理解为一个较浅的表面。在不同的语境下思考，如果将地球作为参照，这个花园就是圆圆地球上的一个非二维平面，是一个三维表面。下凹的洞可以给全人类带来情绪。这个洞由混凝土薄壳制成，上面覆盖人造草皮，周圈设置了一环玻璃栏杆，同时运用了喇叭。喇叭一般在大型户外活动和远距离说话时用到，而在这里，将世界另一端的声音传到中国来。

选择阿根廷，美国，瑞典，德国等地，让洞通过声音将另一端的生命联系起来：阿根廷潘斯帕草原的奶牛，过境纽约的乘客,斯德哥尔摩海上的奔波，柏林街头的声响。这些声音配上到访者的想象力，将思境远离这个洞，这个花园，离开中国，到达世界另一端。