30 St Mary Axe, London

Wilderness

Details
Clients
Swiss Reinsurance Company
Type
Interior
Collaboration
Foster and Partners, London
Durée
2002 - 2004
Status
Realised
Area
1 000 m²
Pays
Grande Bretagne

Trimmed and freely growing hedges and creepers determine our idea of what a typical English garden should be like. Just as a highly technical building integrates traditional ways to control the interior climate, the interior plantings also combine the traditional with the new. Fenced-in plant containers reflect the idea of a landscaped English park in which a part of the garden is excluded from the design and returned to rampant nature. These plant containers are, however, not placed firmly on the ground but move when they are touched by employees or visitors to Swiss Re due to the concavity of the dished bottom, thus referring to the fragility of a natural space in the midst of a high-tech environment. The plantings, too, are based on the traditional givens of an English garden. Hedge plants grow through the grids of the enclosure and creepers wind around the picket fence.