Supertrees feature in global expo about urban nature
Grant Associates' Supertree design concepts to feature at EDIT Expo, Toronto
22 SEPTEMBER 2017, TORONTO, CANADA
Summary
Grant Associates’ designs for the Supertree Grove of Singapore’s internationally acclaimed Gardens by the Bay are to feature at the Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology (EDIT) in Toronto, Canada. The Supertrees will appear in ‘The Green and the Gray’, an interactive exhibition curated by international design studio Carlo Ratti Associati, 28 September to 8 October 2017.Grant Associates’ designs for the Supertree Grove of Singapore’s internationally acclaimed Gardens by the Bay are to feature at the Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology (EDIT) in Toronto, Canada.
The Supertrees will appear in ‘The Green and the Gray’, an interactive exhibition curated by international design studio Carlo Ratti Associati that runs from 28 September to 8 October 2017.
Part of the wider EDIT Expo, the exhibition investigates the evolving relationship between nature and cities. Grant Associates’ founder Andrew Grant will also present a talk about the Supertree Grove at the event on 2 October 2017 to tie in with World Architecture Day.
Organised by Canada’s national design museum Design Exchange (DX), the over-arching theme of the main exhibition is ‘Prosperity for all’. EDIT will coincide with celebrations of Canada’s 150th anniversary, and mark the 50th anniversary of Expo 67 - Montreal's much lauded 1967 International and Universal Exhibition.
The aim of “The Green and The Gray” is to showcase progressive projects in fields such as urban development, housing and product design. From hydroponics to sensors for climate engineering, to vertical gardens and sensitive lighting systems, the exhibition will explore how new technologies can bridge the rift between city and nature – or urban and rural - in unprecedented ways.
EDIT will take place within a former Unilever Soap factory in Toronto’s Port Lands - a five-floor building that will host all of the expo events and exhibition. ‘The Green and the Gray’ will occupy a 2000 sq ft (200 sq m) immersive environment in which living elements such as plants are seamlessly juxtaposed with built ones. Visitors can explore ‘The Green and The Gray’ while moving over a water floor – a special surface in which a thin transparent layer gives the impression of walking over water.
Other exhibitions at EDIT include work by the distinguished architect and designer Bruce Mau, chef Jamie Oliver, computer scientist Kentaro Toyama, and the physician and innovator Julielynn Wong.
Andrew Grant, founder and Director at Grant Associates, comments: “EDIT is an ambitious exhibition that deals with some of the most pressing challenges facing our world, including global urbanisation.
“EDIT and ‘The Green and the Gray’ provide vehicles through which the international design community can explore how to respond to these urgent issues, and help create a sustainable future. It’s a privilege for Grant Associates to be involved with the event and take part in these important discussions.”
Further details about ‘The Green and the Gray’:
Highlights of the exhibition include;
● Tree-inspired architectures: Supertree Grove by Grant Associates
Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay is an award-winning showpiece of horticulture and garden artistry. At the core of the site there is Bay South, a waterfront garden masterplanned by Grant Associates, featuring the iconic Supertrees, vertical gardens with a tree-like structure between 25 and 50 meters, embedded with sustainable energy and water technologies and displaying tropical flowering climbers, epiphytes and ferns. At night, these canopies come alive with lighting and projected media.
● Reversío by Transsolar
Reversío moves beyond the dualities of space towards a continuum of indoors and outdoors by playing with the human senses. By blurring the boundaries between inside and outside, we can extend the range of conventionally acceptable conditions for people, making it much easier to passively provide a comfortable indoor environment. Step into an immersive field that softens the boundaries of space and sensations. (Sponsored by Brens North America and Envirozone Design Inc.)
● Cricket Shelter by Terreform ONE
Cricket Shelter is a dual-purpose shelter and modular insect farm bounded into one structure. Such a hybrid architectural typology is intended as a response to the increasing impact of climate dynamics, armed conflicts, non-stop urbanization and economic upheavals on the world’s most distressed regions. In case of food crisis, Cricket Shelter give people access to good sources of alternative protein, as raising livestock may not be possible at our current rate of consumption and resource extraction.
● Spectral light by Philippe Rahm for Artemide
Designed by Philippe Rahm for Artemide, Spectral Light is a lamp made of 12 light wavelengths emitted by 12 LEDs of different semiconductors, corresponding to 12 wavelengths peaks perceived by different living species: human, dog, cat and plants. The wavelengths that ultimately make up the lamp are therefore to humans 470 nm (blue), 534nm (green), 564nm (amber). For the dog 470 nm (blue) and 555nm (lime). For the cat 500nm (cyan) and 556 nm (green) and for plants 470nm (blue) and 662 nm (deep red).
● Arctic Food Network by Lateral Office
The Arctic Food Network (AFN) project proposes to address the threats of health, poverty, and loss of culture in the Inuit regions of Canada by integrating communities with a unique infrastructure system - a 21st century arctic snow highway. AFN envisions a regional network of hunting cabins, arctic farms and camp hubs, located in relation to existing food sources. AFN seeks to merge new technologies with traditional cultural practices, envisioning an architecture that is adaptable and responsive, rooted in local climate and culture.
Full list of ‘The Green and the Gray’ exhibitors: Grant Associates (Project: Supertree Grove), Lateral Office (Arctic Food Network), Lowline Lab (Lowline), Mathieu Lehanneur (Andrea), MIT Senseable City Lab (Underworlds, Treepedia), Modular Farms (Modular Farms), PikaPlant (PikaPlant), Philippe Rahm for Artemide (Spectral Light), Rebuild By Design (Rebuild By Design), SCAPE Landscape Architecture (Living Breakwaters), Spark (HomeFarm), Susana Soares (Bee), Terreform ONE (Cricket Shelter), Transsolar (Reversio), Carlo Ratti Associati (FICO Eataly World).
Quotes
"EDIT is an ambitious exhibition that deals with some of the most pressing challenges facing our world, including global urbanisation. EDIT and ‘The Green and the Gray’ provide vehicles through which the international design community can explore how to respond to these urgent issues, and help create a sustainable future. It’s a privilege for Grant Associates to be involved with the event and take part in these important discussions." Andrew Grant, founder and director Grant Associates
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Grant Associates is a pioneering international landscape architecture practice. Our work reconnects people with nature in insightful, delightful and distinctive ways whilst addressing the global challenges of urbanisation, the climate crisis and biodiversity extinction.
Our design process is underpinned by a knowledge of human behaviour, nature and ecological science combined with innovative design technology. We bring original thinking, creative collaboration and are exploring what regenerative design and the circular economy means to landscape architecture.
Our varied portfolio includes ambitious large-scale, landmark projects through to small, local ventures.