Embrassons Les Arbes

"Let's hug trees!" This volume collects the impressive roster of entries for Belgium's 2007 Parkdesign competition, which invited a host of international designers to imagine and create innovative urban furniture for the historical Jardins du Fleuriste park in Brussels. The five winners will have their designs installed in the park for a minimum of three years. They include: a series of green squared and undulating benches by Alexandre Moronnoz; a variety of space-age yet organic-looking curvy, flexible white benches by Michael Bihain + Cedric Callewaert; dark and sprawling benches that mimic the shadow of a tree's leaves on the ground by Anika Perez + Brice Genre; a wooden tower modeled on a tree by Frederic Beauthier; and a set of tree-circling seating platforms meant to bring humans as close as possible to the actual tree bark by Emmanuel Gardin.