Stone’s Throw

designed by Archicolture /

Location: California / USA / Type: Playgrounds / Built: 2005 /
Show on Google Maps / Published on February 7, 2011

Archicolture: Landscape is represented in traditional garden art through allegories or as realistic miniatures. We are inverting the process of miniaturisation by isolating a stone from its original environment and expanding its scale to the point that it becomes itself a landscape. Similarly to some experiences in pop art an elementary object is blown to surreal dimensions. In our case it is not a familiar and mass produced object, instead it is an arbitrarily chosen but unique element of a specific landscape, a beach on the Mediterranean. This process begins with the stone being singled out from the many stones forming that particular landscape. Its de-contextualisation and placement on a urban lawn, is a necessary intermediate step to define its identity. The following manipulation transforms it into a space that will be experienced by visitors. ‘Informed’ through images that depict the stone in its original and transitory environment the visitors close the conceptual circle by living actively and emotionally the site.

The garden consists of a ‘forest’ of shrubs surrounding a central structure (the stone). The stone is a concrete surface on earth dunes shaped through earth movements. Cylindrical PVC tubes have been placed in the earth dunes before the concrete was poured in order to achieve the holes in the surface. These contain succulent plants.

Landscape Architecture: Archicolture / Marco Antonini, Roberto Capecci, Raffaella Sini
Design & construction: 2005
Location: Cornerstone Sonoma, Sonoma valley, California USA
Area: 200 m²
Cost: € 11.000
Construction company: Cornerstone Gardens

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