➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
Solum LUGA
If architecture were a stage, how would it perform the relationship between land and human activity? Around the remnants of an abandoned well, the ground reveals the barrenness left by depleted water resources. Yet a quiet ring of reeds gently delineates a place that invites sustained contemplation, handing the frame back to nature and to time. It allows visitors to witness the land’s slow process of self-repair—an understated, almost monumental act of living performance.
➤ Photography by LUGA
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
Solum is a spatial and landscape installation designed by Atelier Faber (Luca Antognoli and Gabriel Pontoizeau) for Luga, an international exhibition dedicated to urban gardens and works of art in Luxembourg. It draws attention to the importance of soil permeability in water cycle management. On the site of an old well in Luxembourg City, the work spotlights the gradual reclamation of inert soil by living organisms, restoring its porosity, which is essential in the fight against drought and flooding. The layered installation superimposes a band of reeds, an allegory of wetlands, on pillars of Luxembourg sandstone, the stone that enabled the formation of the largest aquifer in Luxembourg. The result is an archaic and primitive landscape which enhances the site’s natural environment.
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
The project is based on the lush plant life and the aesthetic and functional dynamics of the flora present on the site, reflecting the restoration of vegetation after the end of human activity. This rich and diverse flora has developed on its own, without human assistance or watering, and is by definition the vegetation most adapted and resistant the site’s soil and climate. The landscaping work will aim to support this flora by increasing the density of the shrub layer, with ruderal annual perennials in nitrogen-rich soils, and grasses and annual plants in dry soils.
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
A curved wooden structure is covered with a woven reed mat traditionally used to cover fences. This structure rests on monumental raised stones made of Luxembourg sandstone, serving as a pedestal and allowing visitors to enter the interior of the work. From inside the artwork, visitors' gaze is drawn to the ground and the vegetation on the site, visible in the gaps between the stones. The curved, organic shape of the structure, designed around the existing plants on the site, interacts with the Euclidean geometry of the defensive system built by Vauban at the Eich Gate in the 17th century.
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
Principal Designers | Luca Antognoli / Gabriel Pontoizeau
Construction | Vereal
Character of Space | Landscape Installation
Materials | reeds / Luxembourg sandstone
Location | Luxembourg city, Luxembourg
➤ Photography by Giaime Meloni
