Container gardening takes off for Bsq.
July 2, 2010
LORRAINE HUNTER
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Talk about a domino effect. Participating in Canada Blooms last year has led to worldwide exposure for two Toronto landscape designers. Alex Bartlett and Robert Boltman of Bsq. Landscape Design Studio will be taking part in the Singapore Garden Festival later this month — one of the greatest honours in the gardening world.
Following the show, their display will be permanently installed at the children’s Botany Garden at the Singapore Botanical Garden. And as a result, they have also been invited to take part in the 2010 Gardening World Cup in Nagasaki, Japan next October. The theme of that event — to take place in the gardens of a reproduction of the Dutch royal residence — is peace. It aims to illustrate how gardening and green space can heal and promote both inner peace and peace between nations. Their challenge will be how to “interpret peace to a child,” explains Bartlett.
It all began with their display at Canada Blooms last year — a portable office in a shipping container incorporating a number of green technologies including a solar power generator, a green roof and rooftop deck, and recycled materials. Known for a sustainable “green approach” in their designs, Boltman and Bartlett won the Canada Blooms Environmental Award for the 2009 display.
“Officials from the Singapore show were impressed with our Canada Blooms installation because there was no waste,” says Bartlett, admitting that he and Boltman were surprised by the offer. “We didn’t think what we did was truly that unique. Other people have done installations in container crates.”
This Rosedale garage has a green roof designed by b sq. Landscape Design Studio.
But the duo’s creation is special. After it’s appearance at Canada Blooms, the winterized installation was moved to a “brown site,” an unused parking lot at St. Clair Ave. W. and Spadina Ave., and is now the company’s support office for projects in that area, “and could be moved across town again for just $150,” says Bartlett.
For the Singapore Garden Festival, the partners will be “trying to create a design that speaks to Singapore’s history as well as to what’s going to happen in the future when we will need to be using less energy,” he says.
The biennial festival attracted more than 200,000 visitors to its inaugural show in December 2006 and more than 300,000 in July 2008, of which 30 per cent were from overseas.
The Bsq. partners will be among some 30 international garden and floral designers at the show including participants from Britain, Australia, the United States, South Africa and Japan. Bsq. specializes in ecologically sound design practices for both private and public clients. Boltman and Bartlett share a desire to “improve, transform and enhance city gardens, urban spaces, rooftops, building facades and other open spaces.”
“The majority of our clients are permanent residences,” says Bartlett, “A lot of people are asking us to do more sustainable things, from planting trees in the right area to installing permeable driveways.” (To encourage as much rainwater to infiltrate back into the ground as possible.)
The firm does both design and construction. Bartlett, 35, and Boltman, 36, met at Ryerson University where they both studied Landscape Design and went their own ways gaining experience for several years before deciding to join forces and open their own firm.
Would they exhibit at Canada Blooms again? You bet. “It’s a good show,” says Bartlett. “We like it because it’s a not-for-profit show which changes the entire focus. And, it has great support staff.”