Escalier d'eau
The Escalier d‘Eau consists of four containers, which are set onto the slope as a diagonal stack. They are filled with gravel and water and planted with water lilies. The upper, accessible container is filled with gravel only. The opened container doors and a large steel-plate form the gate to a garden. It is simultaneously a Bellevue: From the edge of this first step of the Escalier d’Eau one has a view through the canopy of trees into the Flon valley and onto water-basins below. By positioning this “bellevue” next to the course of the subterraneously channeled Flon River and by temporarily opening the thicket on the steep slope with a stair- way of water, we enable a moment of sight of the valley and the notion of an opening city-space. The Escalier d’Eau sets a gardenesque stage for perceiving the valley. The garden is a temporary intervention. Containers conventionally used in construction, are during the course of a garden-season transformed into a water-staircase. In the months to follow they will return to serve their inherent purpose. The water-stairway is also an interpretation of the adjacent site of a construction company where containers are currently stored. With this vernacular garden on the unfinished and undefined slope - a location, which is still a challenging construction site of urbanity - we use the ephemeral character of the containers for a brief reanimation of the industrial spirit of the place.
