V-ZUG Inspirations Magazine - Magazine - Page 76
FOR THE LOVE OF TREES
hedge, an evergreen shrub that has always symbolised the
passage between life and death. And indeed, inside it hosts
all the plants that are being sacrificed today: the wild apple,
pear, and cherry trees, for example, which are the ancestors
of their modern equivalents, which give us precious vitamins
every day. Further on, in the pond, swim sturgeons – fish that
have evolved very little, with the appearance of dinosaurs, yet
they give us the most extraordinary food we know: caviar. And
beyond that, there is a work by artist Richard Edman that is a
commentary on eternity. I think it is important to show all this
time in a single place, to help people understand that we are
at a decisive moment: if we continue like this, there will be no
way back and future generations will pay the price. But if we
connect technology with nature, intelligence with sensitivity,
then there is still hope. Sustainability requires time – exactly
what we too often are not willing to give. Time is everything.
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And the nuns – are they happy with the result? Yes. Recently
I also redesigned the convent garden for them. It is a six-thousand-square-meter space. In 1280 there were dozens of nuns
working there; today there are far fewer, so it needed to be
rethought. Now it includes a cloister where they grow fruit,
vegetables, and flowers for the church. I also added bees and
sheep grazing the grass. There are places to read and to pray.
Next door there is also a farmer with dairy cows. The nuns
see me as an arm that helps them translate their ideas about
nature into reality.
And if someone asked you to design the Garden of Eden,
how would you do it? My Eden is here and now. I was a boy
who had nothing, and even today I am just a gardener. Yet I
managed to create the Tree Museum, a sanctuary of living
giants, time witnesses that will long outlive us. ●
