The Vertical Meadow - Festival of Flowers 2010



About the designer

Craig Pocock has lived and worked extensively in design and project management in New Zealand, Jordan, Palestine, India, Australia and the United States.

His firm is presently based in Christchurch New Zealand from which he teaches, runs a research workshop, and works on projects internationally.

He has been involved in a number of critiques and lectures at Philadelphia University and Yale University in the Schools of Architecture (USA) and Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture (New Zealand).

Craig’s design practice spans a range of design scales from city structure plans and urban grown studies to residential design.

Craig has been instrumental in developing a “carbon landscape” paradigm that considers the impacts of landscape architecture on the climate and environment. He is presently working on a materials selection list for New Zealand landscape architecture.

The Concept

Inspired by, and celebrating, the typical kiwi backyard that may have gotten a little out of hand.

The display tests the ideas of sustainability by tracking the life of the project from the seeding of the idea - to the final destination of the living wall after the Festival of flowers is over.

The kiwi backyard is a celebrated part of kiwi culture which is loved and well used but not always cared for or appreciated enough. It seems that the environment often falls into that category of falling into the “Too Hard Basket” or “We’ll do it tomorrow mate, as long as the fish aren’t biting, or the kids don’t have sports to be taken to.”

Sustainability

The greenwall was designed in such a way that it used the lowest possible embodied energy (energy and pollution material index) materials for a 14m vertical structure, no steel, it consists of 99% recycled plastic and wool and was detailed in such a way that the green wall can be easily de-constructed back to it components (plastics) which can be reused or are biodegradable (wool) and the wall transported and uses permanately on another site as a greenwall or greenroof.

The Team

Project initiative: Festival of Flowers 2010 and Canterbury Museum
Designer: Craig Pocock - Pocock design:environment Limited
Project manager: Jason Collet
Sponsors: Maccaferri New Zealand, Oderings, Lushlawns
Special thanks to: Ari, David, Mev and Tim