SKY GARDEN TRANSFORMS TOURIST SQUARE
08 Jun 2016
A public garden with a difference has been erected in Ortaköy Square in Instanbul that offers the busy tourist center a touch of overhead green without compromising space.
Sky Garden is a suspended garden in Ortaköy Square which is one of the most touristic and busiest squares in Istanbul. Putting a garden on the ground in such a congested area would reduce the walkable surface and make the square even more dense claim the architects of the pavilion, SO? Architecture and Ideas.
To counteract the constraints of the square’s space the architects proposed to hang the garden while still keeping the ground accessible. Using the existing 60sqm slab in the square as a base for the new garden, a series of hanging pots were added to provide the canopy of greenery that serves as shade during sunny days and provided its unique design.
The garden area of assorted plants provides seating as well as shade in the square. As the installation is suspended, the garden acts as a roof under which people can sit and watch the nearby Bosphorus waterway. Just like a tree with different branches, the garden flies between the sky and the Bosphorus with each pot, while a pulley system allows visitors to lower the pots for a closer look.
The mechanism that raises and lowers the hanging pots is a simple pulley system. Since the pots are equally weighted they remain aligned when in balance. If a visitor pulls one of the pots to take a closer look at the plant, the equivalent pot is lifted.
The creators behind Sky Garden consider public installations as a tool to question the architect’s power over design. When a visitor is able to change the installation the architect is no longer able to control the form, up to a certain point. For the architects it is a challenging experience to expand the borders of control even with small gestures like the Sky Garden project, while the temporary installation urges transformation of an established public space.
