MaterialDistrict

Blooming Material Flowers from Jerusalem

“Warde” by HQ Architects is a set of giant urban flowers installed in an open market square in the centre of Jerusalem. Made from a woven nylon parachute material, the flowers ‘bloom’ and react to pedestrians and transportation passing by the public space.

Located in Vallero Square, in the heart of Jerusalem, these fabric flowers are located at the entry of the main open market and tram line station. These four 30’ high an 30’ wide inflatable flowers are part of the city’s effort to improve urban space in the city centre.

The existing square where these flowers are located is in poor condition. The square is divided by the tram line into two urban spaces and there are no supporting programmatic elements but rather uninspiring urban facilities such as a waste composter and electricity sub-station. Warde’s attempt was not to fight the chaos, but to incorporate some fantastic elements that would overcome the reality of the square on one-hand, and be able to stand for themselves in the non-realistic situation of Jerusalem on the other.

The four giants flowers are carefully positioned to be viewed from all points in the square, and from the market nearby. Each flower is separately inflated and reacts to the situation around it, so that whenever pedestrians walk by, the flowers inflate and open up, and then deflate and close as the people walk away. If a by-passer is looking for a moment of shade during the hot summer days, the flower will inflate and stay open until the person leaves. When the tram is approaching the station – all four flowers will inflate at once and signal the shoppers to hurry if they want to catch the tram.

Rather than acting as an uninspiring, function urban place, the urban space suddenly reacts to the people using it thanks to this beautiful material solution.

More about the works of HQ Architects here.

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