This installation in Jaujac, France by french Artist gaëlle villedary, not only feeds my incessant yearning for French travel, but it also so beautifully illustrates the power of lines on the landscape.   A long grassy path leads visitors through the village to the heart of this beautiful place.   It weaves  through trees, and all manner of interesting places, and you can see by the pictures how natural it is for people to follow it.

I am struck by how powerful a line can be, how it leads us, draws us, and guides us.  And I am reminded to remember this in design work.

To see more of this landscape art, visit Tapis Rouge Gaelle Villedary

(images from Tapis Rouge Gaelle Villedary)

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is a picture of a lavender garden.  I came across this image when putting together my last post about the Landschaftpark in Duisburg-Nord (which is where this was taken). Though I am not 100% sure that is what this is, as I study it, I think I see a huge variety of lavender plants, that have  different growth habits, textures, and color  and the result, when planted in strict rows, totally satisfies my stripe fetish.     (utterly appealing, don’t you agree?)

And if in fact, this isn’t all lavender, I am not sure that is at all relevant to me….because I have already been inspired to plant and grow  lavender (and other plants too) in this way.

image from josyannevanderdonk

Post Industrial Landscapes aren’t something I generally give much consideration to, but seeing this project in Germany, I am inspired to see these types of sights, and their potential for re-development, in a new light. Designers from Latz+Partners have transformed a 200+ acre site north of Duisberg Germany, which was once an ironworks plant, into gardens, parks, public space, and recreational areas in an experiment to celebrate the industrial past and the hard work that once took place at the this site.

The site now houses trails that follow the former railroad tracks, climbing walls that were once imposing industial walls and buildings, stacks that have been cleaned and transformed into scuba diving practice facilities, whimsical slides that recall large pipes that once connected the site, and even formal gardens.  It is certainly worth a visit to the site or at least to Latz+partner‘s website to learn more about it.

See the Google Map of the Location, which is about 30 miles north of Dusseldrof on the Rhine River.

(images: Latz+partner,  www.bezreg-muenster.nrw.de, josyannevanderdonk)

Getting from one side to the other, typically, (in the landscape) involves a bridge (or a tunnel) but this hybrid is an exciting mix of the two.

The Moses ‘Bridge’  is located in Halsteren, Municipality of Bergen op Zoom
, The Netherlands.  In order to not disrupt the views to historic Fort de Roovere,  RO&AD Architects of the Netherlands and Belgium created this this pedestrian bridge as a way to cross the historic defenses.

It is built with Accsys Technology whereby Accoya wood undergoes a nontoxic proprietary modification process called acetylation that renders it an unrecognizable wood source which prevents fungal decay from the exposure of water and moisture and increases its structural stability.

I am fascinated by this and want nothing more than to experience a walk across this path. But I am also intrigued by the technology and wonder if perhaps this can evolve as a common alternative to bridges?   It is beautiful in design and if there is not a need to allows vessels to pass beneath (and I wonder if the water and aquatic life passes below?), can it be considered in other applications?

images from yatzer.

I am so excited for these ladies, and given their obvious high level of general chutzpah I think that we have probably been best friends in a past life (and perhaps need to become BFFs in this one).   Their story is simple, they moved their design business to a new building in Greenpoint Brooklyn (NY) and found out that their landlord was going to lease the empty lot next door to become a parking pad.   So they stepped in and with a kickstarter campaign raised over $23,000 to take over the lease and create an urban community garden. Rock on!

Note: for some reason video embedding is being a bit funky today — so I am going to have to send you here to check out their awesome video about the project.

You can follow their progress (as I will be doing) on their tumblr blog and on their facebook page and on their business site - domestic construction.

Their plans involve a place to grow food – complete with geodesic greenhouse for winter production, a bunny hut, and what they are calling a lounging hill (because Greenpark apparently doesn’t have enough hills — and quite frankly we all know every garden needs a lounging spot and place to take it all in).

Dive into the gallery to see more of their progress.   I am so happy that there are people like Maureen and Trish in the world!

This week has been a little crazy for me.  Parties, friends and my whole family at home (encroaching on my workspace) — its all great, and I am grateful, but to some extent, I am looking forward to the quiet of next week.  All I want to do at this time of year is to have some peaceful uninterrupted introspective time where I can plan for the coming year.

Last night I was able (with the help of a blogging friend) to get my focus on thoughtfulness started.  I have the classic overachiever tendancy to want to do way more than is realistic and expect myself to be able to accomplish it all in unattainable time frames.  So, sometimes my introspective times can feel stressful because I can’t figure out how to do it all.   The suggestion to look back rather than forward, at least as a start, turned out to be a good thing.  Instead of trying to get my head around a realistic plan to do all the things I want to do in life, Holly proposed to look back over 2011  and list what was accomplished. Turns out the list is longer than I expected and it is a good one that I wanted to share with you.  I found that in celebrating it, I am able to focus a little less on what I didn’t accomplish in 2011 and now feel compelled to achieve  in 2012.  Instead, I feel good about what I did do and can move into the next year with both a more realistic set of expectations as well as a little less anxiety.

I’m putting my list in the comments —  I thought you might want to share your list too.  I would love to celebrate what you guys did as well.

image from flickr commons. More info about image: Taken Dec 10, 1870
Beautiful and festive scene from the grounds of Clonbrock House, Ahascragh, Co. Galway. We don’t know whether the man with the rifle was a member of the Dillon family or a gamekeeper on the Clonbrock Estate.