Selected as the winner of an international competition, Penda´s landscape pavilion for the 10th international Garden Expo in China seeks to highlight the importance of clean water and protecting the environment. The project is called “Where the River runs“ and takes visitors through a landscape on a pathway resembling a river.
The project is an ode to water. Penda´s task has been to find a reasonable way for a sensible use of our natural resources. Their proposal for the garden expo has been a natural statement for the importance of clean water and a healthy environment. A river-like pathway guides visitors through an artificial landscape of hills and valleys. Penda sees the location as a connection in between other pavilions and it can be entered from three sides. Visitors are naturally guided through the riverbed. On their way they will pass by various landscape formations, like a narrow shore, high cliffs or a natural cave. As visitors are strolling through the pavilion, all paths are leading to the central plaza, where people have time to rest, reflect or have a drink. A natural canopy offers shadow to the plaza.
Seeds of different plants are given to the visitors at each entrance and they get the opportunity to plant local flowers, vegetables, fruits or herbs along the “riverbed”. As people are hiking through the landscape and seeding their plants, they take over the function of a river as they bring life to the pavilion. Like the river does in an natural environment, the visitors become the starting point in the lifecycle of plants. They are an essential part to design the pavilion and that will increase the sensibility towards the importance of clean water and clean air. On their walk through the pavilion, the landscape offers the visitors a wide variety of visual, haptic and scented expression from different terrain-formations to various colourful plants, while they become an essential part in the circle of life.
