The Prairie Design Awards are presented in cooperation between:

Alberta Association of Architects Saskatchewan Association of Architects Manitoba Associaton of Architects
Instant Garden
Instant Garden
Instant Garden
Instant Garden

Award of Merit

Instant Garden
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Category: Landscape Architecture
Landscape Architect: Dietmar Straub, Anna Thurmayr
Owner/Client: Nobby Woo & Lorraine Yau
Structural Engineer: n/a
Mechanical Engineer: n/a
Electrical Engineer: n//a
Contractor: Sunshine Maintenance & Landscaping

The Project

Every year walls of white sandbags cover Winnipeg during the snowmelt. Sandbags can be reused. The body of "Instant Garden" is composed of sandbags and eatable greenery. The touchable surface is calculated like a tender semi-permeable skin and responds like a skin by showing irritations, folds, color, aging, emotions and sunburn. Knowing about the half-life of the material and not wanting to operate with creams, stuffed in bags, the sand will become admixed with the in-situ soil next spring.

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