+2 °C = 43 cm

This project speaks to us of limits, or rather of edges. An edge can be a landscape element separating two materials; if it separates two environments, it is called a margin. If this limit lets itself be pierced, it becomes a transition zone and is called an ecotone. On this narrow 43 cm strip, atelier eem offers an experience of “ecological transition”.

A first tier is made up of aquatic plants, hydrophytes.

The second, submerged 3 cm below the average water level, is backfilled with local silt. The soil, held in place by a perforated steel sheet that allows the exchanges characteristic of the ecotone, is planted with helophytes.

The third tier, raised 20 cm above the water level, hosts the sedge meadow.

The original tier at +43 cm symbolises vegetation from other latitudes and new conditions, echoing the horticultural production that is characteristic of the Hortillonnages.

The metal edges follow a sharply defined line: they evoke the precision and exactness of human work; they bend… and are perforated to let unpredictable exchanges take place.

The rise in water levels is predicted: 43 cm more if we reach +2 °C.

This rise will redefine the boundary between land and water.

43 cm is also the average height of the banks of the Hortillonnages.

43 cm is also (−3) + (+20) + (+20): three tiers, below and above the water, to explore this rise and its new territories.

At the water’s surface, the steel sheet is present; it guides the eye and delimits zones that are thereby clearly defined. But water is unpredictable: it slips in everywhere, it has its own logic, its own moods; it irrigates or runs short, it overflows. The vegetation grows along with its movement, from aquatic plants to sedges and new species, in a botanical rebirth. Down below, exchanges take place: roots recolonise the soil where water comes to irrigate certain areas.

So are these limits as strong as they appear to be?

Does nature not follow other, deeper, more permeable logics?

This ecotone reinvents the territory at +2 °C and speaks to us of the richness of exchange, of the random richness inherent in every change.

Life in the Hortillonnages, between land and water, goes on… a little differently.

Status

Built

Location

Amiens (80000)

Commissioned by

art & jardins | Hauts-de-France

Commission

International Garden Festival | Hortillonnages Amiens

Designers

Francesca Liggieri + Estelle Nicod + Marc Blume + Juliette Blondelle

Date

2020

Photography

© Marc Blume