[ PUSHAK ] Moss Your City

Oslo architects PUSHAK have installed an indoor terrain of moss arches and screens for the London Festival of Architecture, which opened last weekend.

The project is PUSHAK’s first outside their native Norway and is part of The Architecture Foundation’s international exchange programme for emerging architects in Norway and the UK.

Moss Your City can be seen at The Architecture Foundation until the 6 August.

The London Festival of Architecture continues until 4 July.

Photographs are by Guy Archard, courtesy of The Architecture Foundation.

Here’s more from The Architecture Foundation:

Moss Your City: An installation by PUSHAK
19 June – 6 August 2010

Moss Your City, by the Oslo-based architectural practice PUSHAK. is the outcome of The Architecture Foundation’s international exchange programme for emerging architects in Norway and the UK – launched to identify and promote the best new architects from both countries, creating networks for creative and cultural exchange.

PUSHAK was established by Sissil Morseth Gromholt, Camilla Langeland, Marthe Melbye and Gyda Drage Kleiva with an inclusive vision of architecture that considers local landscape and climate, energy use and local human and natural resources in the design process. The practice quickly gained recognition for, amongst other projects, a series of rest stops along the National Tourist Routes that placed contemporary architecture within the Norwegian landscape.

Moss your City is PUSHAK’s first project overseas and furthers their research into the relationship between contemporary architecture, landscape and natural resources. It was inspired by the Bankside Urban Forest (a focus area of the London Festival of Architecture 2010) and by the work of green activists across South London.

Responding to a long history of moss in architecture – from traditional Japanese gardens to Victorian mosseries – PUSHAK presents a spectacular moss landscape that is designed to inspire and enchant. The aim is to show moss as a beautiful and versatile material that can work in harmony with contemporary design. Naturally abundant and requiring low maintenance, moss could be exploited to create new types of architecture that unite nature and architecture.

PUSHAK believes that, along with architects and planners, individuals should also take responsibility for greening cities to create more amenable, vibrant and healthier places to live. The accompanying catalogue shows how you can get involved in urban gardening projects in South London, as well as providing a recipe for ‘moss graffiti’ so that you too can Moss Your City.

Moss your City is the official Norwegian participation in the International Architecture Showcase, organised by the British Council and The Architecture Foundation for the London Festival of Architecture 2010. Later this year, UK architects will return to Norway to take part in Oslo’s 4th International Architecture Triennale.

Installation Design: PUSHAK (Sissil Morseth Gromholt, Camilla Langeland, Marthe Melbye, Gyda Drage Kleiva and Isabel Ruiz)
Curator: Elias Redstone, The Architecture Foundation
Project Manager: Richard Collis, Jackson Coles
UK Supporting Practice: Metropolitan Workshop
Construction: Construct Scenery & Living Props
Lighting Design: Speirs and Major
Lighting Equipment: Philips & Architainment
Structural Engineers: Adams Kara Taylor
Project Intern: Anjeli Placzek
Furniture: Hive
Moss Consultants: 6a Architects
Norwegian Partner: Norsk Form

from  dezeen