©Udo Dagenbach
GLASSER AND DAGENBACH
gERMANY
The settings of gardens and parks form backdrops before which visitors, whether public or private, are able to act out a role in their very own play. The manner in which we approach the design of gardens, parks and landscapes depends entirely on the character of the space and how it will ultimately be used. We consider both the shape and structure of the existing surroundings and, naturally, the needs and wants of the visitors or clients, and then act as an intermediary and instigator between the space and the user. We see ourselves as a tool which can be used to lend shape and expression to the conscious and subconscious wishes of clients or visitors.
The design must be strong and clear so as to bestow lasting energy, expression and purpose upon the open space we have crafted. Our aim is to create gardens and parks with which we can identify on an emotional level, yet which still retain a lasting, timeless clarity. Our garden-creations are therefore not restricted by genre. We are able to bring our ideas to fruition whatever the desired style. A contemporary style is neither a prerequisite nor a hindrance to achieving high-quality design.
This has been definetly Isamu Noguchi, an American Japanese Sculptor who did the UNESCO sunken garden and another great garden in Los Angeles. I liked his sculptural and landscape design approach that was very abstract and innovative.
Another great landscape architect has been Mirei Shigemori whose works at the Tofukiji Temple in Kyoto really hit me in 1982 in Kyoto.
In fact it was the Ryoanji Garden in Kyoto – the most radical reception of a garden idea – stone and gravel – that’s it.
SELECTED PROJECTS
English Garden, Vilnius
Realization of the architectural part of an English garden for a villa, as it is sometimes seen close to houses. Fountain, vases, pergola pillars and sundial were English products from artificial limestone. In the front garden the position of entrance at the road and entrance to the house were unluckily already defined by the architect. For there was no direct visual connection, there had to be installed a linking square, marked through four Taxus baccata formally clipped in shape of the ones in castle Villandry in France. Balls and Cubes from Taxus and Ligustrum complete the formal design of the garden. Groundcovers as Heuchera, Pachsysandra, Carex, Geranium and groundcover roses surround all solitaire plants. Amelanchier lamarckii multistem, Quercus fastigiata ‘Koster’ – Pillar oak, Pinus cembra and a Picea abies ‘Hoopsi’ – blue as Christmas tree are used to define the space. The garden on the backside is formed as a spiral shaped cup. In the centre a fountain is located – a copy of Eaton Castle in England. Boxwood hedges frame the rose planting with groundcover roses and high stem roses. A 25 m long pergola with climbing roses leads the descending path to a gazebo with Clematis and climbing Roses. Pinus sylvestris watereri and Taxus baccata shaped as an umbrella create “point de vue” across the garden. Many Hosta follow the paths. Hemerocallis in varieties, decorative grass, Vinca minor and Pachysandra terminalis cover the ground. Rhododendron, Boxwood balls, many Hydrangea and other flowering shrubs were planted.
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Modern Garden, Vilnius
Design of the garden of a modernist style villa in a pine tree forest close to Vilnius, Lithuania. Building and raw structures of the surrounding: Alfredas Trimonis – H-K-T-architects Hamburg. The specific atmosphere is created by two elements: Horizontal perfectly-maintained lawn and very high vertical pine tree stems – a melancholic, meditative mood which is very close to Japanese garden themes
In a wooden paving of an outdoor terrace was cut a rectangular in which a cuboid sculpture is arranged representing the most possible reduction of a garden: half Jurassic marble and half clipped yew. In a boxwood cuboid in the lawn, a globular bronze calotte with various circular openings was placed – like a star sky. At night it is lit from inside. At the backside of the house a ball-shaped sculpture is arranged in the lawn between the vertical pine tree stems – a spherical garden. One third consists of Jurassic marble – two thirds are clipped yew again. Other parts of the garden are designed as a Japanese landscape garden with gravel, Diabas stones, 90 years old Taxus cuspidata bonsais from Japan and amorphous clipped Buxus sempervirens. In the line of the Japanese garden another sculpture shaped as a discus is arranged. This time a garden element which looses any connection with gravity was created. That is why the top of the 1,4m diameter discus is performed as a levitating Jurassic marble stone. Below Taxus media hillii was planted thus the complete shape of the discus is visible. Stone and yew are connected symbolic by a bronze disc.
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