botanical design in architecture and interiors with wayward plants

the green & healthy places podcast explores the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and hotels

Episode 059 took us to London, UK to chat with Tom Kendall, Associate Director of Wayward Plants, a botanical design collective on a mission to bring urban communities back into contact with the natural world.

Our conversation covers their work creating biophilic public benches that convey a message about inner city air quality, large scale plant donations as an ethical business practice, designing botanically inspired playgrounds, their work designing a botanical memorial for nelson mandela in liverpool and their nature-inspired sustainable interior concept for a stella mccartney store.

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lemonary by wayward plants

Matt Morley

Let’s start with a question about your ‘better air benches’. There are so many different ways of bringing nature back into the city nowadays, it is one of the things that really inspires me personally and I think we share those same values.

How can something as seemingly banal as a public bench become much more functional and play an actual role in purifying the air within the city?

improving Air quality in the public realm

Thomas Kendall

Yes. So this was a collaboration with business improvement districts (BID) down in south London. And it was kind of interesting because it didn't start out as a bench, the initial proposal was supposed to be a gateway, it was supposed to be something big and grand.

After some really interesting discussions with the BID, we decided to change it to try and in a way take up more space. And to become more purposeful and useful within the public realm.

We knew there were other people who were doing other kinds of more ‘threshold gateway-esque strategies’ in London then anyway. So we wanted to try and find a way to integrate ourselves in a little bit more of a purposeful environment, we also knew that we were going to initially be sited in Borough Market, which is obviously this amazing sort of threshold and space of exchange, of constant flux and change.

We needed something that had an element of transition to it. And for us, this idea of a simple bench was I guess, the key that unlocked that for us, we wanted something that was going to be colorful, something that was going to be very simple yet interactive. And also obviously, that one of the key parts of us has to be something green.

Unusually for us, we ended up working with a monoculture of ivy in this instance. So we filled these very simple mesh cages of benches and we filled them with English IV, which is known to be really good for air quality. And we knew we were never going to fill them with enough to actively change the air quality. But for us, it was very much about raising awareness, which is also why we didn't want to be stuck in one site.

So whilst we started out in Borough Market, the whole point with the benches was that they were mobile, they could go out and fill space. Four years later, now, I'm still getting texts from friends being like, “Oh, I just saw your bench on this street” or “I just sat in this square and had my lunch on your bench”. There's something so wonderfully human and intuitive about them, that people really warm to.

borough market, london

Healthy buildings, outside air quality and raising public awareness

Matt Morley

So let me dig into that a little bit... If we had, say, a closed environment such as a healthy building interior, or specifically a workplace environment where we might be aiming for a much more tangible set of data and outputs. For example purifying the indoor air and improving productivity but when you're working in the public realm, perhaps the sheer scale of the problem is so huge that that you're never going to be able to make a meaningful impact on the air quality in that particular area of London. So do you set out with a different mission in a sense, just to raise awareness amongst the general public?

Thomas Kendall

Yeah, that was definitely one of the client’s key concerns with this was to have a wider discussion on air quality in Southwark obviously, it's a huge conflict points, so many congested roads, curbside deliveries, all day long and the amount of pollution varies so much, even down to like the huge spike in Christmas, because of Amazon deliveries to everybody's offices.

We knew there was a problem. but we only had a budget of £30,000. You're not going to solve all of the borough’s pollution problems for that clearly! There's there's always two strands - one is just the simple factor of enjoyability. In the public realm, the basic user interface of creating something that people will regularly use and then there is the lesson to be learned from that brief experience.

It's not we try not to make it like a giant placard, you know, we don't want to put a big billboard in front of you saying air pollution is wrong, it's usually a little bit more passive or subtle. So on the benches, we included a series of educational quotes or facts about the area and the pollution levels or different plants that can benefit our health and the environment.

air quality monitors and the role of data

We also had a series of sensors that were up for six months on them that were measuring the pollution in the different areas of particular, in particular, and that they sort of as they moved around, there was some data that was collected, just showing the amount of pollution in these different spaces, that was also then streamed to the business improvement district’s website.

In this way we did manage to get a really interesting look at the pollution levels, and how just moving two streets away from the main thoroughfare the amount of pollution would lower and there's now actually a green map that's been created of walks around Southwalk based not just on that data but on a much broader series of investigations to create different pathways to get to work or school for example avoiding pollution.

moor lane community garden by wayward plants

botanical design interventions in the community for added biophilia

Matt Morley

Let’s shift onto the Moor Lane Community Garden project and the idea of creating or co-designing effectively, and architectural interventions in the form of a garden in the local community as a way to bring an element of nature back into that that particular corner of the city. Talk to us a bit about that.

Thomas Kendall

Yes, Moor Lane was a really interesting one when it comes to engagement, because there was already a small community garden there and a huge future proposal involving the whole redevelopment of that particular street. So we were initially invited in actually as a mediator between the City of London and a series of local residence groups, where there seemed to be a bit of a disconnect happening.

Our first role there was to act as a middle person to help them communicate, and to find out what was missing, what wasn't being communicated effectively, and where things might be improved. Initially, we just having a lot of conversations, we didn't even dive into design. In fact the first three meetings were all about conversation and communication. And out of that we discovered that the future proposal had zero relevance to the site and zero relevance to the community. That was their problem.

We were eventually asked to not only come up with a green intervention for the site but also to challenge the entire future proposal for it. The future scheme had no relevance to the Barbecan, and it didn't reference its architecture, it didn't reference the community.

Not only were they concrete objects that we created in the end, but they were also etched in to exposed aggregate in the same way that the Barbican had previously been hand carved. There were certain color themes inspired by the area too as well as referencing old and new planting.

It was great for us, because as well as these conversations, we got to then invite people in to do planting in the project, too. So we had a really nice hands on aspect to it beyond the design and engagement. And then following up on that, obviously, there was a big report we put together that detailed every conversation, everything that had ever been said, as well as how it integrated into the designs.

Now in fact we're back on site, again, looking at how our designs have impacted it. And we're now redesigning the new planters, to include some of the details and motifs that the community thought was specifically poignant or interesting from what we did.

Even our own design got re-critiqued re-engaged with at the end of the whole thing, and the community groups came in and told us what they didn't didn't like about those and what was successful and what they would like to see go forward. It meant putting ourselves on the frontline to be critiqued.

sustainability and social responsibility in botanical design

Matt Morley

Is see that as being part of a wider concept of giving back and incorporating a community aspect into your work, which some could say is a version of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or ESG. It's certainly a cohesive approach within the overall framework of being a business working in the space of sustainability and biophilia that you to make an effort to, to give back via plants. Tell us about that.

Thomas Kendall

So this was something that started even before Wayward was Wayward. In a way, the very first thing that sparked this conversation for us was seeing a plant thrown out of a window in New York City, strewn across the street, it was incredibly dramatic, there was a couple shouting above, some sort of weird divorce argument I think!

Well, we picked up this plant from a broken home, we took it home, cared for it, brought it back to life, repotted it, and then we gave it to a friend. And the conversation we had with that friend was more in depth than I think most conversations we've ever had. And if a single plant had activated, this new conversation with somebody that we thought we knew quite well, we thought ‘well, maybe this is a thing’.

Plant donations as a way to give back through biophilia

It was an act of exchange and a way to use nature to explore human stories. And so we started off with one plant every year, we've gradually expanded on this. So moving to like 10 plants, 50 plants, 100 plants, so creating what we call ‘plant adoptions’, where we now invite people where we collect plants from unwanted homes, and we invite people into spaces, and they have to fill out an adoption form, and prove to us that they're going to be good plant parents by drawing or describing the home it's going to go to, and only once we deemed them a good plant parent will they then get the plant in exchange. And it's become this fantastic web. It's like exploring people's stories with gardens and nature. And it's not even just about filling out the form. Sometimes it's just the conversations that you have, again around these events.

We now use this as a tool for exploring public space and for large scale engagement. And so we also now give away through the same scheme, usually around 10,000 plants a year from the RHS Flower Show, Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Flower Show, so we now give everybody about 10,000 plants a year to schools and community gardens, mostly sort of in and around London gradually gradually working our way out a little bit further afield as well.

Matt Morley

It's a really unique approach to giving back. We've collaborated on a biophilic design interiors project recently together and it was a very strong calling card for Wayward, being able to contribute to a greener, more ethical supply chain. create a supply chain and a network of consultants and other sort of service providers within that project.

Biophilic design and plants in kids playgrounds

I know that there's a playground that you're involved in recently, Asteys Row in London, I find playgrounds really interesting proposition they can often be so cold and heartless. But there's so many options simply by adding some biophilia and connecting the kids back to nature. Now, I often take inspiration from playgrounds I see in places like Germany, and Scandinavia, where they just seem to have completely reinvented what a kid's playground can look like. And then I see some other ones here, around me in Spain that look pretty, pretty frightening and harsh. But tell me about as these rows row playground because I know that was one you are deeply involved in yourself.

Thomas Kendall

Yeah, so Asteys Row was really interesting projct to be a part of because it was already embedded between two gardens in a way. So it's part of the New River Walk in the middle of Islington, London but when we first got faced with it, it was this very tarmac heavy, brutal, sad, grey crumbling space, a remnant from the 70s.

Again, through conversations with the locals, we started to gather stories about what it used to be the fact that there used to be speculations around streams running through it, there were a whole sort of weird little myths about who remembered what, but the key for us was this connection between the two existing gardens, and there's this amazing boulder garden that runs through part of the New River Walk right into where this playground space was. But there was no connection between it at all it was this is like they just sliced through it, and got rid of it.

rewilding the city for more biophilia

We saw it as an act of rewilding, we wanted to kind of bring this boulder garden back into fruition. It was also when we went on site with kids, as we did when we did our community engagement work for that we didn't want to get stuck in a local town hall talking about it, we went onto the playground. And we actually basically played with kids for half a day, in the space, both in the playground and up and down the area. So really, they we got the kids to take us on tours, rather than us going out taking them on tours.

We decided to take all the lessons learned from the existing garden, that was an amazing topography and landscape and bring that into the playground, whilst also having to handle all the many things that come with a playground, you know, health and safety issues, a ball court, which is never going to be the most appealing thing, especially on a sort of slightly tight Council budget. But it was we were actually really impressed with the way that the council really took the ideas on when we mentioned this idea of a boulder garden.

risk benefit analysis in healthy green playground design

We worked with a lot of amazing play safety inspectors as well, who brought the idea of a risk benefit analysis into the project. So we're no longer that concerned about a few falls or trips or hazards here and there. It's actually now about risk benefit analysis. So if the risk is great, but the benefit is greater, then that's actually deemed to be a positive thing.

And for me, the whole thing really it came out of very much replicating the existing landscape as well as learning from my own childhood, you know, I grew up on a farm near a beach. But there's sort of translation of how I played as a child. And my natural landscape. And the lessons I've learned from that, alongside working in talking with these children, and their appreciation of the natural landscape, sort of brought it all in.

Then we you know, as well as that, that, that's just the general topography, we then play with plants and planting as well on the site, we like introducing new trees, creating moments of play in interactions where the kids felt like they could disappear and hide from their parents and then reappear and emerge, even though they were never really out of somebody's sight. So it was a really nice way of integrating the whole of the History site as well as the way it was very much used by its existing community, and then just exaggerating it and and enhancing it.

Botanical design as part of biophilic design - an outdoor memorial project

Matt Morley

Some people might describe Wayward’s work outdoor biophilic design, others might call it, creative landscaping in some instances so you can go from a playground to something like the Nelson Mandela outdoor memorial project up in Liverpool where again, you're using nature for its mental wellbeing and quasi-spiritual benefits.

I think we all connect with nature on some level, often provoking feelings of calm for example. So how do you go about taking something like that and applying it to a memorial? And why in Liverpool?

Thomas Kendall

The Mandela project is an absolute privilege to work on, as you can imagine. And when we first got approached about this, we were a little unsure if we would be able to find our place within the project but when we started researching and reading, we discovered this amazing use that he himself had for gardens.

Within the prison that he was in, he used the gardens to grow food, both for himself and the other inmates because as you can imagine, the food was not particularly great on Robben Island all those years.Then he also used it as an act of exchange between them and the prison guards to allow books to come into the space. So he used it as this tool for both sustenance and education.

He would turn the quarries into temporary classrooms during lunch. They would then educate each other. And it was all through this exchange of edible foods for books and other educational materials.

In his act of kind of digging the garden over, and he had to grow plants, he'd also then be hiding his manuscripts. So the gardens were originally built, either just dug in the ground or dug into oil barrels, which would be cut in half as a very sort of simple on site piece of infrastructure. We've replicated these oil barrels in form and scale on site, there's going to be 32 of these simple cylinder shapes that are going to have his words on. And that's the reference and the way to Mandela and his approach to gardening.

What we were really keen on is that it wasn't just a memorial or just a public artwork, I don't think we will ever do just a public artwork, it will always have to be interactive, it will always have to be education, it will have to be a place that's accessible and inviting. And so very much in the way that he turned the quarry into a classroom we wanted to turn the island that this project is going to be on, in the middle of Prince’s Park in the middle of a lake and on this island, we wanted to turn it into essentially a theater, or at the very least an outdoor classroom that is active and engaging.

Even now, it's kind of amazing, we go into schools in Liverpool, and we've been doing workshops as well with kids there. And they already understand this at the ages of 9,10,11. They already understand this relationship that Liverpool had with Nelson Mandela. And they understand the importance of this. Hopefully, when they come to use the space, in the end, they will treat it as a classroom and as a theater and as a space to engage and learn and meet as a community. And not just as a memorial. But underneath it, there will still be his words gently carved in and around the space.

stella mccartney store, london botanical installation by wayward plants

botanical interior design narratives in sustainable retail

Matt Morley

It's an example of the role of narrative and big ideas that drive your projects Tom, there's always a lot going on behind it for anyone who's prepared to engage with that experience rather than just seeing the visual aspect, there's always an experiential component clearly.

When you're working indoors in an interior space of say 300 square meters in a retail store, such as the project you did for Stella McCartney, flagship, how do you go about trying to create that same experiential component and integrate those big ideas around bringing the outside world in through biophilia using certain types of plants? It must be a very different mindset, right?

Thomas Kendall

So in a way, there was a lot of similarities, they're both very personal projects, very much dealing in a way with the image of an individual. So obviously, Nelson Mandela, he had his particular approach to gardens and Stella McCartney, she herself has a very particular approach to the environment and sustainability.

With with Bond Street store, we knew that her interior design team were very much trying to explore something new, when it came to retail, they weren't just trying to create a store, what they really wanted to look at was how to integrate elements of her life. And her own experiences into the space.

There'd be a lot more personal conversations around her upbringing and growing up and how it started to translate into sustainable fabrics and finishes, as well as treating the whole building more like a home, there was a welcoming hallway, there's this almost sitting room upstairs.

This idea of a garden is core to any domestic situation, to the sense of the home. But then obviously incomplete counterintuitively to that we needed the kind of polish expected of a flagship store on London’s Bond Street.

So lots of the finishes and stuff that were going into the design of the store itself with the all this beautiful polished brass and concrete work and playing with materials and things there was a lot of process going on invited us to go right the other way and try and keep process to an absolute minimum and to really focus on very raw simple combinations of elements.

We were speaking to a lot about her father's Island up in Scotland and her relationship to stone, we proposed this idea of a boulder garden, right in the middle of the store, very weighty but at the same time relatively calm, sort of meditative. She felt a huge resonance with this idea. She's a big believer in sort of geological crystals and things as well.

The sustainability angle was important so we made sure that every stone in the place was sourced within the UK, carved within the UK, or the mosses either came from local growers, or were recycled from Chelsea Flower Show, and built into the garden. So then yeah, it became this very interesting conversation between the simple raw material of the stone and how to integrate it into into a beautiful green retail environment.

Matt Morley

It's a really unusual case study. And I think one that adds a lot of substance to your to your credentials, as well.

If people want to follow along and read more about what you're up to, where where's the best place for them to go, or to see what you're up to?

Thomas Kendall

Maybe just to have a look at our website https://www.wayward.co.uk/ we treat it like a live news feed as well, I have to confess, we're not the greatest on Instagram at the moment. But we're getting there slowly. We're too busy being outdoors rather than just online!

If you do want to get involved with any of our plant re-homing schemes as well. There's links on there that you can either sign up to as a school or community or as a volunteer. And yeah, usually for sort of have a look about usually around April or when there's usually some really good opportunities to come and volunteer and collect plants with us and enjoy the flower shows.

Thank you very much Matt.

https://www.instagram.com/waywardplants/

UK floral stylists - biophilic design concept

UK botanical artist

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UK floral stylist

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UK botanical artist 〰️ UK floral stylist 〰️

As healthy building advisors and biophilic design consultants, we maintain a close eye on the ever more vibrant field of floral art, styling and design. These works use living flowers, dried flowers, preserved flowers and a generous dose of design creativity to bring the outside world in - the fundamental principle behind biophilic interior design.

What’s more, we’re seeing a number of these artists integrating sustainability and ethical business practices into their value system as well, making them even more worthy of our attention as sustainable interior design consultants.

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Design by Nature

floral artist, london, uk

https://designbynature.co/

Design by Nature is a floral stylist studio based out of East London that uses experimental design in dried botanicals and cut florals, a perfect compliment to biophilic design interiors.

Their projects range from sculptures to arrangements, bouquets, and installations. Taking cues from the natural world, their botanical compositions integrate nature’s raw beauty for private clients, brands, as well as weddings and corporate events. Notable client names include Nike, ASOS, Facebook, Vogue, and Swarovski.

In placing an emphasis on sustainable sourcing, Design by Nature works solely with British flowers and dried botanicals. They also provide a flower delivery service. 

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Rebecca Louise Law

floral artist, london, uk

https://www.rebeccalouiselaw.com/installations

Rebecca Louis Law Installations is a London based floral installation company that specializes in large exhibitions of preserved flowers. With this as her signature, her works are widely recognizable in the botanical art sector already.

Along with this recurrent theme, she experiments with the contrasting states between living plants and dried, between with fresh, preserved, and decaying flowers.

She specialises in vast works that often find their natural home within museum and gallery installations. Some notable customers include Skovgaard museum in Denmark and the Chandran Gallery in the United States.

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carly rogers flowers

floral stylist, london, uk

https://www.carlyrogersflowers.co.uk/

Carly Rodgers, a Camberwell based floral artist, creates dazzling artistic installations with the floral medium. She makes stunning cut floral arrangements alongside elaborate garden installations.

By bringing the natural flora up walls and wires and into interior environments, she breaks the mould of a traditional florist and pushes into the contemporary art space.

Rodgers has been commissioned for large-scale events, weddings, and one off installations. Some notable client names include Cartier, Benefit, Michael Kors, Dior, and London hospitality destination Sketch.

Her botanical sculpture has found its place in high-profile business, renowned designers, and private clients around the globe.

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Simon lycett

floral artist, london, uk

https://www.simonlycett.co.uk/

Simon J Lycett is a luxury floral artist based out of South London, a brilliant example of biophilic interior design using flowers. He takes floral design to a breathtaking level creating magical designs for his clients. Some of his most notable and prestigious customers include the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Queen herself.

Lycett’s floral portfolio includes weddings, special events, and commissions for historic buildings. His style is elaborate, evocative and deliberately colourful, seamlessly integrating into any building or interior with his signature touch of class and elegance.

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jam jar flowers - floral installations, london uk

http://www.jamjarflowers.co.uk/events

Melissa Richardson is the founder of Jam Jar flowers, a floral installation company based out of South London with an obvious devotion to the field of biophilic design via flowers, whether living or dried. They create intricate floral designs for events, weddings and creative projects.

Working for notable names such as London Gate and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the elaborate designs have grown into a notable name in the industry. With installations of flowers cascading down from the ceiling, growing up walls, and springing from the floor, her designs are perfect for anything from a product launch to an extravagant party.

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The Flower Laboratory - floral artists, east sussex, uk

https://www.theflowerlaboratory.com/home/

Based out of East Sussex, The Flower Laboratory is a big name within the UK floral industry for those that know and a dramatic example of how to integrate a biophilic design concept into commercial contexts, be they photo shoots or fashion shows.

The team’s stated goal is to provoke an emotional response from their audience by harnessing the power of plants and flowers to communicate feelings. With a large portfolio of projects and installations, they are known for their elaborate set builds for magazine photoshoots. Clients include Gucci, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue.

They also make arrangements, sculptures, installations and set builds for films, events, runway shows, and retail. This is all delivered by their in-house team or botanical designers, florists, plant specialists, set builders, set dressers, and floral artists.

Frog Flowers - floral stylist, manchester, uk

https://frogflowers.co.uk/services/installations-events/ 

The Frog Flower company was started by David Jayet-Laraffe in Manchester creating floral installations for grand openings, product launches, anniversaries and other events.

Their client list includes Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and the National Theatre. They also have florist studios where people can experience the practice of floral design for themselves hands on by making their own bouquets and flower crowns.

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Wild About - floral stylists, London, UK

https://wildabout.co.uk/pages/floral-installation 

Wild About is a floral installation outfit with a client list including Alexander McQueen, Michael Kors, J Sheekey restaurant, Hackett stores and Fifty Cheyne.

Floral displays for weddings and events hold a large place within their portfolio, alongside retail store flower installations and weekly flower delivery services curated to fit each different customer’s preferred style.

Endlessly creative in their retail brand store installations, they have an indulgent, elaborate style that is just right for the instagram generation where big, bold visuals are needed to capture our attention.

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Pyrus Botanicals - floral artists, scotland

https://pyrusbotanicals.com/creative 

Fiona Inglis and Natalya Ayers started Pyrus Botanicals in East Lothian, Scotland. The studio creates botanical installations for events, sets, brands, film and TV, and editorials.

Some top names of their clientele include The Telegraph, The White Company, and Strathberry amongst other fashion and lifestyle publications. They also specialize in weddings from large scale and luxury to more intimate events.

Sustainability and ethics are of high priority to Pyrus Botanicals. They source flowers from small specialist farms across Britain to reduce their environmental impact and support local businesses rather than importing from floral industry the giants such as Kenya, Colombia and the Netherlands.

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Returning Nature To The City with Barri Studio

A conversation with Jordi Barri of Barri Studio in Barcelona for the Green & Healthy Places podcast episode 038 on sustainability and wellbeing in real estate and interiors.

Conversation highlights:

Everything is interconnected. So at the end, the relationships between plants, insects, and even humans, are crucial for our work, especially in an urban surrounding.

We created a garden of pollinators that allows insects to gather and colonize.

When we see butterflies in the neighborhood it means that we are recovering, and those vegetation communities are working well. It's like a biodiversity parameter for a healthy environment.

In response to climate change, landscape architects have to design with nature, not against it.

We did a study of the bird species of the area and their migration behavior then designed a rooftop with plant communities suitable for those nesting birds.

Nature is complex, vivid, random, diverse...

With our designs we want to bring back wild, uncontrolled nature into our cities - it’s much better for the soul.

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Matt Morley

Jordi - Great to have you on the podcast. You grew up surrounded by plants, it's obviously in your DNA, your family had a plant nursery in Catalonia. I wondered how you think now about that experience, how it's influenced you, and the knowledge that was handed down to you from the previous generation generation?

Jordi Barri

Well, yeah, I grew up in a plant nursery, it was from my grandfather, and my father and now is run also by my brother. The botanical names, usually that's something very funny, even with my friends, because they were are always joking about how I know all the right plant names, it is just like a lexicon that has always been there for me.

I remember when I was a kid, my father, not forced me but let’s say ‘obliged me’ in the summer to work with him, since I was about 10, so every summer for one month, we had to be in the nursery working! At the end, it has been very much influential in in me, even, I remember those winters where we went to the nursery, with the Christmas trees, and we had to deliver them around the neighborhood. All of that helped me now to understand much more about how those plants evolved, how they behave, and so on.

Matt Morley

It's interesting, hearing your response, it occurs to me that there's a tangible difference between having parents with their own business versus someone who may be running a company, but it's not their company. For the kids, it’s a completely different result in may ways.

So clearly, that knowledge of landscaping and biophilia (connection to nature) is built into your heritage but how have you built upon it to create your own particular style today?

There is a lot of thinking behind the plant strategies that you put forward. In addition to aesthetics, there's this functional side, clear ecologically inspired concepts and strategies in fact. Can you talk to us a bit about that, about how you try to promote biodiversity, for example, via specific combinations of plants to almost giving your projects a higher purpose beyond just sort of decorative landscaping?

Jordi Barri

Yeah, well, at the end, we are very much interested in our landscape designs not being static , we like to go deep in understanding the relationships between those plans and within the plant community we design to see how they can all work together.

So in order to solve problems for example, when you have trees that are attacked by aphids, we can create a plant community that captures the attention of ladybugs that also serve to attack those aphids.

It's a kind of symbiosis that we’re trying to achieve here, in order to bring something more than aesthetics, for example, to understand how certain plants can help sequester carbon, capturing CO2. It's trying to work a beyond the aesthetics, and going more into an ecological approach based around functionality.

Biophilia

When we bring that into the city, we don’t just bring natural beauty but additional ecological benefits too. Everything is interconnected. So at the end, the relationships between plants, insects, and even humans, are crucial for our work, especially in an urban surrounding.

Matt Morley

Rewilding

Sounds quite similar to some of the rewilding projects that are going on in the UK, for example, where people, landowners often are looking to reintroduce certain species that have become extinct, as a way to promote greater diversity in the animal world around them and find that balance that perhaps has been lost due to the impact of industrialization and basically humans on the planet.

Landscapes in placemaking

So let's dig into one of your projects as an example, because I think designing a garden or creating private spaces is one thing, and we can cover that later. But I’m really interested in the role that landscape designers can play in, let's call it like placemaking. Public squares, places that make up the urban fabric of a city, that in a sense, you're designing and creating these green spaces, right, so you're bringing some greenery back into urban lives that way.

I was looking at the town square project you did in in Santa Eulalia. I think you're starting that one next year. Can you describe the different components that go into that type of project?

Jordi Barri

Designing urban green spaces

Well, yeah, well, it's a kind of a probably Plaza divided in different areas. And also, what is characteristic about these are its organic forms that it's more rounded. What we also wanted to recreate was much more about the sensation of the memory that the people of the town have when they go to the river, and how we can try to bring that sensation into that urban Plaza.

So, at the end, it was like, divided in like if we call like three different areas, that one is called like a dense wood. So where we plant a dense wood that recreates a little bit the the woods and the trees that we have in those areas surrounding that town.

Playgrounds for kids

Then there is a flexible, performative surface, where those different activities can happen. And also, there is a kids area - almost a must when you do a public park or plaza, because at the on the end, they are the main users and so we have to bring in the functionality of the playgrounds, but also a more didactic angle for them, so that they start to understand how to deal with with nature they're so we usually those games that we plan the plan for them are in that case, are made from robinia wood instead of plastic.

Matt Morley

Nature in urban design projects

Then you have other projects, such as the one in in Blanes also starting in 2022. What sort of techniques or strategies can you use to create a small hub, like a nature-oriented meeting place for the local community? How does that how does landscaping connect with that bigger strategic concept of creating a meeting place for locals and promoting a sense of community for the people who live in that area?

Jordi Barri

Well, it's true that in that case, in that park, there was a strong Neighborhood Association, and it was already like a kind of a meeting point for them, but it was totally disrupted and not very pleasant. So, our strategy there, obviously, because we are focused on ecological aspects was to create a topographical movement. And with that, a little slope, we collect all that rain water, towards what we call a bio swale.

And that bio swale acts like a spine, at the end becomes like the place where you can walk, and the different zones of that parks are attached to that spine.

Biodiversity

So in another aspect, in terms of our ecological approach - we created a garden of pollinators that allows insects to gather and colonize.

We have all seen in the pandemic how parks have become like a very important place, even for healing minds and for the healthy health of the people. So I think that by combining these two aspects, like the beauty and the ecological as we always try to do, people will will be pleased to gather there and enjoy the park.

Matt Morley

Biophilic design

I think that's where what you do starts to overlap with what I do in terms of creating green indoor spaces, but really a lot of the same design concepts - giving people access to nature, even in an indoor environment, if there's no Barri Studio designed park around the corner for example!

Bringing nature back - “butterflies in the neighborhood”

You've written about the concept of butterflies in the neighborhood, what are signs of progress in terms of nature slowly being invited back in to cohabit with us in city centers? How is your concept of butterflies in the neighborhood? How does it relate to that?

Jordi Barri

Well, when we see butterflies in the neighborhood it means that we are recovering, and those vegetation communities are working well. It's like a biodiversity parameter for a healthy environment.

Obviously, at the end is like trying to recover on those lost areas that we have in the city, that can be like a place where this nature is brought back. So and that can happen very much into the roofs here in Barcelona, there are many projects now that that are concerned with the green roofs, but not just as, as it was before, maybe there was just like a green roof in order to, to claim it or an insulation aspect, but much more like to bring nature back.

So if we bring all those insects back, all those plants back, at the end it’s like trying to have a better balance between human beings and nature, animals, and insects.

Everything is related. When you have in the city street plantings that are planted with one species, that doesn't bring diversity. So at the end, if you plant a diversity of species, then it brings other communities there. And that brings lag, so at the end, we have to force or we have to lay the substract in order that that these magic of those communities happens there. And I think that is all what we are trying to do here in the studio.

When we say butterflies into the neighborhood, that’s what we would like to see when we open the doors of our houses - butterflies and birds.

Matt Morley

I know you're interested in what's been done in Asia as well, in that sense. So if we take a step back and look at the regions, and how different regions deal with this in a different way, obviously we're talking from effectively a Mediterranean location, a Mediterranean climate, but in terms of Asia, Singapore, obviously being sort of the leading example, but I'm sure there are many others… Are there lessons that can be learned from what's been done in Asia? Or are there no universal principles? Is it very specific to each region according to whether it's tropical or or dry, hot or cold?

Singapore - a biophilic case study

Jordi Barri

Yeah, well, obviously every region has their own their own problems and their own different strategies , instead of using the way to plan the cities, in a more engineering way, that it was okay, everything should be channelized, you know, like concrete channels in order to avoid the water flood from one place. So, landscape architects can bring another vision. And that is why it's so important in terms of a major role in transforming the cities, because the way to approach to those problems are totally different than the engineers. And now we see, for example, and not in Asia, but in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles River, there was totally channelized. with concrete.

Now, there are many projects that are dealing or how to get rid of that concrete, and how to bring the stream of the river back. So at the end is like an obvious concept is like, in that case, in Asia, what they're doing is like they are planning huge parks, that they become Sponge Parks, when they have floods, they can retain they can hold these water, and then they can bring it back to the to the river in a control way.

In terms of the Mediterranean climate is probably totally different. Because at the end of what we bought, it works the same boat in a different rain parameter. So here, what we want is to hold that water as much as we can, because we have a lack of water. So we have to retain that water somehow. And then to apply to try to irrigate with the water that we collect in order to not to abuse and not to, let's say like the aquifer that we have tried to not to stress it. So it's better if we can use the water that we collect from the rainfall. In response to climate change, landscape architects have to design with nature, not against it.

Matt Morley

Sustainable design principles

It's almost as if you're having that relationship with nature. The last thing you'd want to do is to harm it, or in fact, what you want to do is great work. And great work requires now that you also protect and do whatever you can to, to help and reduce the damage that's being inflicted on nature.

And again, similar principles behind biophilic design. It's not just about creating green spaces, it's no good if it's green and looks natural, but it's having a negative impact on the environment. That just makes no sense. It's not a coherent approach. And I can really see that in the way you talk about designing spaces or outdoor green spaces that are respectful of nature, that bring nature in and that do whatever they can to help it, to stop the negative impact that humans are having.

Nature in residential architecture

You have an interesting perspective because you work across industries, in a sense both from architecture , right the way through to outdoor landscaping projects and your project in Mallorca in particular, which is a residential project. It seems to be a really interesting example of how you can use buildings And in this case, architectural design, to attract nature back into the city. So rather than it being an outdoor green space, you're effectively designing a residential building. What techniques have you used to connect the future residents of that building with the nature around them?

Jordi Barri

Well, we wanted to do research of how a building can be much more than just a building, from an ecological perspective, so we did a study of the bird species of the area and their migration behavior then designed a rooftop with plant communities suitable for those nesting birds. An external staircase can then become a lookout for those birds nesting on the rooftop.

Imagine if rooftops could become stepping stones around the city for birds to make their nests in - that was our goal. Kids living in the building can watch and learn how the birds nest so it takes on a learning function as well over time. Nature is complex, vivid, random, diverse...

Those perfect French gardens were so manicured and controlled. That was a way to show man’s dominance over nature. With our designs we want to bring back wild, uncontrolled nature into our cities - it’s much better for the soul.

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