European Union: The Gardens of Fantastica

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European Union: The Gardens of Fantastica

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Government + Health ›
Landscape + Planning › Public Park

European Union: The Gardens of Fantastica“Concepts such as “far” and “near” are completely subjective, as are the times of the day and the seasons. Moreover, the latter are determined by different laws than in our own world: one may find a frozen polar landscape right next to a burning desert...visitors to Fantastica, whose traces the traveller may encounter {include}: Borges, Lewis, Magritte, Dali, Archimboldo and many others “- Michael Ende in The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, A. Manguel & G. GuadalupiThe project asks, what if the raison d’être of the European Union (EU) was food and energy security? An allegorical masterplan for Paris radically re-imagines the formation of the EU after World War II. Here the parliamentary headquarters moves every 5 years; spreading the influence of sustainable living and celebrating the special qualities of the host cities. Fantastica is revealed in the streets, parks and skies of Paris, the capital of art and culture for the first term of the new EU.Under the uniformly clouded sky the wide boulevards of Paris are relieved of motor traffic, community allotments pack out all but a modest cycle lane, the squadron of artificial clouds work to irrigate the food boulevards whilst also providing accommodation for the hundreds of volunteers from all around Europe who come to contribute to the EU cause. The beautiful panoramic views are the silver lining for all the hard work they do. A vast energy ring surrounds the city like a defensive wall, safeguarding against the threat of increasing energy demands.On the Champ-de-Mars the Members of European Parliament (MEPs) are the keepers of Fantastican gardens and have a duty to the public to communicate the ambitions of the newly formed EU, they stay in communal accommodation hats, which double as storage archives. Biomass is delivered and along with food waste and sewerage it is fed into apple shaped digesters where bacteria break down the material into methane biogas, this collects in inflatable leaves on top of the apples, which act as shading canopies for seating in the maze above. The methane is stored in gasometer mountains, and are each decaled with a national flag of an EU member state. The mountains double as pigeon towers used to collect tons of droppings for the anaerobic digesters. A vast chemistry set cleans the biogas before it is burned in combined heat and power generators, condensers then separate out polluting carbon dioxide from the emissions and re-direct it to intensive greenhouses.An underground reservoir purifies river water and forms a protective moat around the base of the Eiffel Tower which is transformed into the parliamentary headquarters; a hanging food curtain veils the 300m structure and attenuates the internal microclimate, it is drawn back ceremonially as the MEPs assemble in umbrella boats. The river seine is bridged from the Champ-de-Mars to Trocadero by a frozen layer; the by-product of water source heat pumps. An artificial sky of water collecting umbrellas covers the evening apple orchard.

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Steven McCloy

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European Union: The Gardens of Fantastica

European Union: The Gardens of Fantastica

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team