KEN SMITH WORKSHOP
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE URBANISM ART
 A Ditch With A View, Metis International Garden Festival, Quebec
Completion Date: 2012 Metis International Garden Festival, Client Martin Bond / Jardins de Metis, Photography A three-year temporary garden installation using reclaimed materials to construct three large frames spanning a drainage ditch with views out toward the St Lawrence River. The project takes the idea contrasting common utilitarian materials with the grandeur of the natural view. By using salvaged window frames, fallen logs and a utilitarian engineered drainage ditch, the site is reframed in a way that makes people look at it differently and find beauty in something that’s actually quite ordinary. The frames span 24-feet and vary in height and color – 16-feet height white frame closest to river, 12-feet height blue-gray frame in the middle and 8-feet dark gray frame farthest from the river. In this way they recede in scale and visibility the farther away they are from the Saint Lawrence River.

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