Source: inhabitat.com
Published: May 12, 2015
by Lori Zimmer
A4A Rivolta Savioni studio’s urban garden solution popped up at Expo Gate Milano last month. Easily movable on reused bicycle wheels, the public garden—called ‘Why not in the garden?’—was rolled out into the city square. The mobile garden can bring a wall of flowers or rows of edible plants to nearly any outdoor area.
Known for transforming cityscapes into urban oases with sustainable live plant installations, A4A Rivolta Savioni designed a pop up garden for the concrete open space for visitors to enjoy. Situated around a sprawling communal table in the sun at the Expo Gate, the wheeled gardens took on two forms, a vertical module with metal frame espaliers that allow flower pots to hang, and horizontal modules with a flat table top for flower beds. Each of module is mounted on steel frames connected to four recycled bicycle wheels, painted in bright colors to match the framework. In order to allow guests to enjoy the lush greenery, A4A installed wooden benches alongside each module, letting visitors breathe in the fresh scents of florals and herbs while they sat down for a rest.
Throughout the festival, the modules were reconfigured each day, creating an ever changing outdoor component of the International Furniture Exhibition. The 450 lush plants were center stage for a series of events, including cocktail hour, communal dinners, kid’s snack time and evening parties. After the week of celebrations, Why not in the garden? was disassembled, and the plants were sold with proceeds benefiting Link for Aid, a not for profit that assists children in Myanmar and Cambodia.