A family of 134 oaks has settled in the heart of Geneva. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
06/11/2020.
[Geneva] Switzerland
metalocus, VALERIA OZUNA
metalocus, VALERIA OZUNA
The 7000 Oaks proposal, projected in the competition phase by BUREAU - Daniel Zamarbide together with Leopold Banchini Architects, takes as an argument the presence of the plant world in urban fabrics as a vital and respiratory necessity. This fact takes inspiration from the actions of 1980 by Joseph Beuys for the city of Kassel in Germany.
The 7000 Oaks proposal takes place in the context of the CEVA station in Geneva, where you can see an idea of multifaceted relationships. The trains have their route, the subway the same, and people go up and down, crossing vertical layers of infrastructure, to discover on the surface a growing condition, composed of 138 oaks and hundreds of other spices planted outside.
The 7000 Oaks proposal takes place in the context of the CEVA station in Geneva, where you can see an idea of multifaceted relationships. The trains have their route, the subway the same, and people go up and down, crossing vertical layers of infrastructure, to discover on the surface a growing condition, composed of 138 oaks and hundreds of other spices planted outside.
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Guillaume Collignon
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
7000 Oaks by BUREAU. Photograph by Dylan Perrenoud
Site plan 1:500. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Site plan 1:50. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Bench axonometry. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Abribus Axonometry. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Abribus Axonometry. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Stair axonometry. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Handrail detail A. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Handrail detail B. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Joseph Beuys / 7000 Oaks in Kassel, 1982 - Image by 7000-Eichen-Foundation. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Joseph Beuys / 7000 Oaks in Kassel, 1982 - Image by 7000-Eichen-Foundation. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Joseph Beuys / 7000 Oaks in Kassel, 1982 - Image by 7000-Eichen-Foundation. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Joseph Beuys / 7000 Oaks in Kassel, 1982 - Image by 7000-Eichen-Foundation. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
Joseph Beuys / 7000 Oaks in Kassel, 1982 - Image by 7000-Eichen-Foundation. 7000 Oaks by BUREAU
The new infrastructure designed by Jean Nouvel and Eric Maria redefines the accessibilities of the Geneva region and relates to the landscape planning intervention of the public space developed by BUREAU - Daniel Zamarbide.
The flows from the subsoil transform and adapt their rhythm in slower meandering routes, proposing a kind of “street” experience, under and with the trees and their intense plantations.
The flows from the subsoil transform and adapt their rhythm in slower meandering routes, proposing a kind of “street” experience, under and with the trees and their intense plantations.
Description of project by BUREAU - Daniel Zamarbide
Joseph Beuys’ 7000 oaks for the 1982 Documenta in Kassel constituted a turn in the art world. By a quite simple conceptual gesture the artist managed to use the power of art discourse and action to activate an environmental concern that has grown ever since. This happened in the1980s, the same decade which saw a very substantial acceleration of violence towards all living beings on earth. Ever since, we have been trying to develop our consciousness to counter this movement, with a relatively poor success.
One of the most interesting issues about his art gesture is that it constituted a real contract with the city of Kassel. It was through the engagement of a contractual relation that the piece acquired all its strength. Its subtitle was important as well: City forestation instead of City administration. The discussions, polemics, and difficulties to find the funds for this enormous project had the consequence of it being treated exactly as a moment or point of a political agenda. This is probably the most powerful argument of the proposal. From his artist position and posture, Beuys anticipated what was going to become a political and civic issue: the presence of the vegetal and animal (other-than-human-living-beings) world in urban fabrics as a breathing, vital necessity.
There is another perspective on this: co-existence. We depend on other living beings to transform the atmospheric air into breathable oxygen. We can also think of these beautiful transforming organic machines as companions, creatures that live with us.
The discreet, sometimes majestic, dynamic presence of plants is part of our lives and our lives are symmetrically part of theirs. French botanist Francis Halle has talked extensively about the discretion of trees, how their rather important presence does not involve any sort of arrogance over other smaller and less powerful beings. Trees are peaceful companions.
Cities renew, evolve through dynamism and urban mutation; they grow as a more complex nature than one just made out of inert materials and mechanical fluids. All of it is part of an intertwined ensembles of “things” and beings that interact and make the urban fabric a tense, contrasted and exciting tissue where most of us enjoy being in a composite togetherness.
The project of the CEVA station in Geneva extends, or installs itself within this idea of multifaceted relationships. The new infrastructure, thought and designed by Jean Nouvel and Eric Maria as a piece of a network of stations redefining the Geneva region accessibilities, relates to our intervention, in a companionship connection. Trains pass by, in the underground, and people go up and down, traversing the vertical layers of the infrastructural soil, to discover a growing condition, composed of 138 oak trees and hundreds of other planted companions.
The simple idea of “just” planting trees, accompanies the arrivals and departures of the new regional train line. Flows from the underground transform, adapt their pace into slower meandering routes, proposing a sort of “flaneur” experience, under and with the trees and their intense planted ground. These micro eco-systems are hosted in dedicated islands, not necessarily accessible to humans. They have enough space elsewhere. They can sit, enjoy their pauses and chats on the borders of these islands and on dedicated urban furniture. With time, patience and experience, the place will become a specific and beautiful eco-system, where people, trees, microbes, insects, other plants will co-exist peacefully. Some of us will still be in a hurry and dig down the escalators to take the next train, some others will breathe slowly observing from above the red lights of the train lines for decades, growing, discussing, and looking at the world resiliently.
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More information
Architects
Competition.- BUREAU - Daniel Zamarbide + Leopold Banchini Architects. Realization.- BUREAU - Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta, Galliane Zamarbide.
Design team
Anna Scorretti, Lilian Pala, Luísa Pires, Mélanie Ganino, Pauline Tondreau, Peter Bauer, Thibault Pierron, Andreina Mosquera.
Collaborators
Lead architects.- Jolan Haidinger, Joana Croft, Vanessa Pointet. Partners.- Thomas Jundt ingénieurs Civils SA, Alfred Forster AG.
Area
14,225 sqm gross, 9,656 sqm of public space, 2,416 sqm of planted surface.
Data set
Trees employed.- Quercus Acutissima, Quercus Castaneifolia, Quercus Cerris, Quercus Frainetto, Quercus Petraea, Quercus Pubescens, Quercus Robur. 7,239 perennial plants and shrubs employed.- Abelia grandiflora, Amelanchier rotundifolia, Aquilegia vulgaris, Artemisia arb.‘Powis Castle‘, Berberis vulgaris, Campanula latifolia, Campanula rapunculoides, Carex foliosissima, Carex ornithopoda, Choysya ternata, Colutea arborescens, Cornus mas, Cornus sanguinea, Corylopsis pauciflora, Cowdalis lutea, Daphne laureola, Dryopteris filix-mas, Erigeron karwinskianus, Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, Fragaria vesca, Geranium cantabrigiense, Geranium macrorrhizum, Geranium sanguineum, Hamamelis mollis, Hedera colchica ‘Arborescens', Heuchera sanguinea, Hydrangea quercifolia, Ilex crenata, Ligustrum ovalifolium, Ligustrum vulgare 'Atrovirens‘, Lonicera nitida, Lonicera pileata, Luzula nivea, Malva moschata, Origanum vulgare, Osmanthus heterophyilus ‘Gulftide‘, Osmanthus x burkwoodii, Phlomis russeliana (samia), Polystichum aculeatum, Polystichum setiferum, Rhamnus catharcticus, Ribes alpinum, Staphylea pinnata, Stipa gigantea, Viburnum lantana, Waldsteinia ternata.
Dates
Completion.- June, 2020.
Location
Plateau de Champel, Geneva, Switzerland.
Photography
Dylan Perrenoud, Guillaume Collignon.
Daniel Zamarbide. BUREAU
BUREAU, is the new project by Daniel Zamarbide. The practice hides under its generic name a variety of research activities. BUREAU makes things as an urge to react to the surrounding physical, cultural and social environment with a critical standpoint and with an immersive attitude. BUREAU is (in 2017) a furniture series, an editorial project, a design team, they are architects.
Daniel Zamarbide obtains his master degree at the Institut d’Architecture de l’Université de Genève (IAUG) in 1999. During his studies he followed the workshops of Christian Marclay, Philippe Parreno and Catherine Queloz at the École Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Geneva.
In the year 2000 he becomes one of the founding members of group8, an architectural practice that has acquired an important national and international recognition.
Daniel Zamarbide obtains his master degree at the Institut d’Architecture de l’Université de Genève (IAUG) in 1999. During his studies he followed the workshops of Christian Marclay, Philippe Parreno and Catherine Queloz at the École Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Geneva.
In the year 2000 he becomes one of the founding members of group8, an architectural practice that has acquired an important national and international recognition.
Daniel Zamarbide has developed through the years a particular interest in the protean aspects of his discipline and nourishes his work and research through other domains like philosophy, applied and visual arts as well as cinema.
As a guest lecturer and jury he has been invited at a diversity of international schools and institutions to present and discuss his work and research.
Since 2003 his interest in research and education has led him to be invited as an assistant in the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and as a professor (2000-14) at the Haute École d’Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva. In 2014, he integrates the team of ALICE Lab (Dieter Dietz) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) as a guest professor and research director.
In 2012, Daniel leaves group8 to start a new practice with Leopold Banchini, architect. Their practice, BUREAU A has explored during 5 years the possibilities of architectural making in a great variety of formats, opening the practice to work in the fields of art, garden and landscape architecture, exhibition design, temporary architecture and object making.
In 2017, following the dissolution of BUREAU A, Daniel Zamarbide pursues his more personal research interests under the name of BUREAU. This new entity produces architecture in the continuity of BUREAU A and incorporates to his already prolific activities furniture design (with a design brand of the same name) and an editorial project, which launches the first publication in June 2017.
Leopold Banchini
Leopold Banchini was born in Geneva in 1981 and is an architect graduated from the EPFL (Ecole Polytechinique Fédérale de Lausanne). He is also Master in Architecture from the University of Lausanne (2007) and graduate of the Glasgow School of Art (2004).
Is a visiting professor in the HEAD (Haute Ecole de Design et) in Geneva since 2010 and Assistant Professor at the EPFL since 2009. He has also been Archozoom project designer in 2009.
Has been placed in Lot / ek Architects (New York) between the years 2004/2005, as an assistant project Art Basel (Basel) in 2005, and as a project partner of the collective Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) that same year in Rotterdam.
He has developed his work as an architect in b720 Arquitectos (Barcelona) during the years 2007 and 2008, and Group8 Architects (Geneva) in 2009.
In addition, since 2008 part of 1to100 Architects, and architectural collective based in Geneva. Its members have been active and decisive parts in projects such as the winning participation of Bahrain at the last Venice Biennale - RECLAIM Golden Lion 2011, exhibitions such as The Gulf - OMA-AMO's participation at the Venice Biennale 2007 and publications such as AMO-Rem Koolhaas's Al Manakh. Parallel to that, they conduce many different operations ranging from architecture, to journalism, until urban design. They have teaching positions at the EPFL and the University of Arts and Design in Geneva.
Its aim is to take position and initiate reflexions upon our contemporary environment.
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