Night Garden

Night gardens are spaces for dreaming. dwg., the landscape architecture firm behind this project, temporarily transformed a stretch of Austin’s urban creek into an experiential dream about that creek’s potential. Night Garden reveals and celebrates a hidden urban ecology and shifts perceptions through a powerful, immersive, site-specific art installation.

CREEK SHOW / CHALLENGE

The mission of Creek Show, hosted by the Waller Creek Conservancy, is to surprise and delight the community while creating awareness about the importance of the Waller Creek transformation for Austin’s social, cultural and ecological future. Creek Show is presented to spark conversation about the transformation of Waller Creek into a series of urban parks (a prominent landscape architecture endeavor that is currently under construction), while supporting and celebrating outstanding design.  

INSPIRATION / PHILOSOPHY

The inspiration for this installation focuses on the fantasy of Night Gardens. Night Gardens, while lovely during the day, truly come to life at night through the reflection of moonlight off of seemingly glowing blooms. The resulting installation transformed a space into a high-spectacle and immersive environment, vibrant at night, both visually and audibly —calling to mind the experience of a dream.

The installation explores the site’s future potential and showcased it artistically. The team used materials relevant to the construction process, foreshadowing the inception of site improvements.

DESCRIPTION

Night Garden was planted with an ephemeral, nine-day bloom of 80,000 fluorescent survey flags, which were secured along a section of embankment and creek shallows at the edge of Waller Creek, an under recognized, natural feature of Austin’s urban ecology. The bright pink flags were illuminated by 30 UV black lights and glowed as visitors wandered through the field of blooms.

The radiant garden was further made lively with a custom recording of crickets, frogs, and hooting owls, composed to amplify the sounds of nighttime creatures native to Waller Creek. The ambient sound, played over speakers hidden throughout the garden, and the varied, rolling site topography, made for a fully immersive experience that truly transformed the space and transported visitors. Allured from afar, viewers became enveloped by a field of blooms, alive with subtle movement from the breeze and sounds of creatures in their native habitat.

The landscape architect was responsible for the concept, design, logistical management, installation and removal of Night Garden. The team worked closely with the Waller Creek Conservancy to ensure the most impactful and cost-efficient experience possible. The installation was completed by the staff of the landscape architecture firm, as well as student volunteers from the University of Texas School of Architecture.

Over 20,000 members of the Austin community walked along Waller Creek to view the works of art. Night Garden was extremely well-received and inspired an abundance of social media activity, successfully bringing attention to Waller Creek.

Following Creek Show, the survey flags were collected and donated to Treefolks —a local organization dedicated to the reforestation of Central Texas. Each of the 80,000 flags, symbols of change and transformation, will be reused, and have become the vision and tool for 80,000 new trees in Austin’s urban watershed. The landscape architecture firm is collaborating with the Waller Creek Conservancy, Treefolks and Austin’s professional design community to create awareness around a campaign to fund the new trees. The installation has already been reinterpreted into a second piece called Night Bloom, which was displayed at the AIA Austin holiday party and used to spread the message of reforestation.

COMMUNITY IMPACT

Night Garden employed public art and outreach to help tackle an ignored urban ecology by creating an awareness of the issue and sparking conversation. The installation found inspiration directly from the site’s current and future conditions and helped illuminate the potential of Waller Creek.

Night Garden and Creek Show brought together a wide array of people, spanning demographics, to create lively and authentic community engagement focused on the power and impact of landscape architecture in the urban environment. The installation has also inspired a collaboration between the Waller Creek Conservancy and Treefolks to help reforest Austin’s urban watershed.