Garden in Gniezno
The idea is to create a garden that is unpretentious, free-flowing, and welcoming. A garden that invites people to settle in and feel at ease.
The site is located within a dynamically changing landscape, where former agricultural areas intertwine with rapidly expanding new single-family housing developments. The surrounding nature reveals itself through views of vast fields and tree-lined roads.
The project takes a broader perspective on the landscape context, drawing inspiration from the surrounding ecosystems and the traditional layout of a Greater Poland rural homestead. We take cues from the way traditional home gardens were shaped, with their archetypal elements: a small decorative garden in front of the house, a vegetable patch, and an orchard. In the project, these elements are reinterpreted through flower plantings in front of the living room windows, a vegetable garden with a greenhouse, a fruit orchard, and a traditional bench placed in front of the house.
Sonja Marczewski, Oliwia Rybczyńska, Marta Tomasiak
Atelier Starzak Strebicki (architecture)
4072 m²
private
2022 – 2024
Between the greenery, the flooring meanders softly, creating fluid pathways. Rounded islands form garden rooms, while elliptical planting beds with clusters of vegetation appear around the structural columns. Similar shapes, in a more delicate form, emerge in the northwestern part of the garden.
The proposed pathways will develop organically, shaped by the natural movement of residents through regular mowing of the most frequently used routes. Along the northwestern boundary of the plot, a buffer of greenery has been introduced to screen the view of neighboring buildings – this forested zone is complemented by a dense belt of shrubs.
The heart of the garden is a flower meadow. It is surrounded by a ring of plantings in the shade zone (under and around the building’s roof), partially intersected by green walkways. Further out, perennial plantings, shrubs, and meadows spread out in a radial pattern, interspersed with wild lawns. On the southern side, a zone of edible plants is located. The entire area is surrounded by a forest garden and multi-species, wild hedges.
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