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Architects: Pamela Tan
- Area: 154 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:David Yeow
“My feet may be stuck on earth,
But my mind is a realm of Eden;
The heaven’s wonder.”
‘Eden’ blurs the boundaries between man-made wonders and the beauty of nature. The installation is a celebration of natural elements with wondrous landscape referenced from the mythical story of the ‘Garden of Eden’.
‘Eden’ invites you to re-discover how nature can be experienced by magnifying subtle details through its organic structures, transporting you to another world unlike anything you have encountered. An all-white landscape awaits as your senses are treated to the calm & serene environment, akin to being in the grounds of a mythical temple. A pathway covered with crystal-white pebbles leads you through an arched passageway inspired by Victorian-era steel conservatory structures. It’s light, skeletal structure is a nod to the architectural and engineering marvel of the ‘Crystal Palace’; a massive cast-iron structure built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London.
In ‘Eden’, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as elements melt and merge together becoming a single growing structure. Here, the garden passageway gives form to hanging ‘vines’ hovering above the arches, imitating stalagmites in a cave. Where vertical and horizontal vines converge to form seating areas as if they were organically grown from ancient tree roots.
Upon closer observation, glass spheres can be seen delicately perched on the cusp of the hanging vines; echoing water droplets balancing on the edge of leaves after rain has subsided. A cathedral-like space is achieved with the varying heights of the vines casting an intricate play of shadow upon its surroundings. Jules Verne’s drawings for the ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ provided the inspiration for ‘Eden’s’ cavernous-like quality. Enhancing the overall spatial experience of the journey.
‘Eden’ wishes to bring you to re-discover the joys of looking closer, to cause you to momentarily suspend your beliefs and become a child once again. To believe, if only for a moment, that you are actually in paradise.
