Landscape designer Paolo L. Bürgi, transforms a Cypriot hospital garden into a calm Mediterranean
The landscape project develops the outdoor and indoor spaces of a heart surgery clinic in Nicosia, Cyprus. The project covers different aspects, some realized for the outdoor spaces - like the parking area with tree coverage, the cafeteria outdoor space under the cork oaks trees, a path in the wood on the edge of the property, and some others inside the clinic - such as the green hall or the chapel- a place of worship open to different confessions.
The design uses typical elements of Cyprus' territory that, with a process of decontextualization, transforms into main themes of peculiar spots such as a hill of olive trees, in front of the patient rooms of the clinic, a wide water basin and a garden of old clay vessels, formerly used to store wine. Onlly few different kinds of plant species were selected to transmit the simplicity of the surrounded landscapes.
Bürgi use the Morus for the car parking, very appropriate thanks to it’s easy maintenance, its fresh, green colour of leaves. The flowerbeds underneath are covered with Myrthus planted as a regular surface to create a thick, evergreen volume.
The outside space for the cafeteria is animated with an important group of cork oaks, placed in an effort to create a sense of deepness with contorted trunks and bark. In the axis, a hundred year old olive tree is placed to catch a perspective glimpse. On one side of this space a triple lined long hedge of Pittosporum tobira encloses the perimeter of the area, which is intended to be a place of rest.
An new plantation along the banked boundary connects with an already existing, voluminous tree population of evergreen and conifers: Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Araucaria heterophylla, Pinus halepensis, Grevillea robusta have been planted forming a small woods, this green corridor not only provides fauna but also provides patients with an opportunity to walk under the trees.
A spacious hall has been realized insides the surgery clinic, with a waiting area for the visitors with different spaces to sit under majestic Schefflera amate and Alstonia scholaris, an Indian medicinal plant. The ground is covered with Liriope muscari, a perennial herbaceous flowering plant also called Lily turf and the Sansevieria, a herbaceous evergreen plant native to west Africa and one, of the best plants for improving indoor air quality by passively absorbing toxins.
While arborescent specimen of Opuntia ficus-indica were also planted in front of a window in a perimeter stone wall of the villa’s garden. These plants were taken from an abandoned field where the cactus grew unnoticed in the brushwood in an unkempt part of the site. Every effort was taking during transportation to ensure that the delicate plants where preserved and then replanted in a space framed through the wall. Framed in a slightly different context, the plants reveal a composition and give a new meaning to Cypriot landscape, as well as enhance the view and protect the privacy of the inner courtyard.
In the evening from the inside windows patients can see the distant lights of the city while the cacti, thanks to the upward projecting lights, are reflected on the swimming pool’s water, on the glass windows, on the slabs of the court’s pavement and the sculptural.
Fact Box
Project Name: American Heart Institute,
A RE-NARRATED MEDITERRANEAN LANDSCAPE
Location: Nicosia, Cyprus
Authors: Paolo L. Bürgi,
Prof. Landscape Architect,
Studio Bürgi Camorino Switzerland
www.burgi.ch
Collaborators: Chiara Pradel, Florentine Schmidt
Studio Bürgi Camorino Switzerland
Clients: A.H.I. American Heart Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
Area: 35’000 m2
Photographers: Paolo L. Bürgi (1◊16), M. C. Soteriou (17)
Project: 2006-2010
Construction: 2008 -2011
