This landscape design object was built as part of the Bilbao Jardín 2009 competition: its participants were invited to develop projects for small landscaping objects (80 m2) for different parts of the city. In total, 27 such projects were selected and implemented; in addition, 4 landscape architects received a personal invitation to participate in the program.
One of them was Diana Balmory. She was entrusted with a staircase between the twin residential towers of Arata Isozaki Atea, next to the Subisuri Santiago Calatrava pedestrian bridge that spans the Nervion River.
The exact translation of the title of Balmory's work is "A Garden Climbing a Staircase." At the same time, the elongated, soft lines of this object rather flow down to the square and the river. According to the architect, the garden personifies the victory of landscape, nature over public space and architecture, the changes that these concepts experience in such a neighborhood - at least only in the minds of a city dweller.
This garden is a dynamic space made up of curved stripes of different textures and tones. It moves in time, changing depending on the season. Its elements merge and contrast with each other: native and exotic plants, red flowers and green grass, grass and gray stone steps. From an urban planning point of view, the garden reconciles the horizontal of the square and the vertical of the staircase, transforming it from a "transit" space into a place for a short rest and reflection.
For Balmori, this is not the first work in Bilbao: she is the author of the general plan for the Abandoibarra area (together with Cesar Pelli), landscape design projects for the Plaza Euskadi and Campa de los Ingleses squares.
