Earth Chambers
James Corner / Field Operations
Inspired by the original Barcelona Parlour Gardens from the 1920s – conceived as a creative hybridisation of gardens with ceramics, painting, sculpture and architecture – we sought to create new, contemporary interpretations informed by digital technology, the plastic properties of clay, machine fabrication, and the capacity of vessels to hold soil and moisture for plants.
Rather than a representational scale model or a grounded enclosure, each chamber stands as a singular artefact – with its own presence, its own autonomy. They exist as they are, complete in themselves, open to interpretation and potentially scalable.
Made from earth and containing it, each harbors an underworld: cut-aways that reveal grotto-like spaces of shadow, dampness and respite. Oriented to a specific solar aspect and vantage point, the different forms are tuned to their context.
These earth chambers invite and sustain plant life-succulents and species adapted to the Mediterranean-arranged into their own composition: tall stems and textural forms alongside spreading ground-covers and trailing fronds.
Making of Topography / Womb / Vault
Making of Mosaic / Matrix / Alveoli
Making of Star Flower / Collector / Showcase
