Shifting Sands An Indoor Plantscape

- Natasha Smith

Following their show-stopping landscape creation for the Downtown Design exhibition last year, award-winning landscape architects desert INK returned this year and showed their creativity is limitless with a fresh new design for the interior event plaza. The plaza itself was conceptualised as a respite and relaxation zone surrounded by the frenetic buzz of the main exhibit spaces. Featuring café outlets and free dining space, desert INK settled upon a concept which fulfilled many different functions at once, as explained by Managing Director, Duncan Denley “with so much activity and noise in the rest of the exhibition, we recognised that our installation must provide a breath of fresh air for visitors, and there are few things better than plants to provide a feeling of calm. Based upon discussions with the event organisers, it was imperative that the plants were elevated and monumental; not something that you could pass by without soaking in. Finally, our design was to be an interactive piece, something functional rather than just an attractive object.”

The Middle East’s leading design fair ran over three-days in November and was attended by design professionals from a huge diversity of backgrounds seeking new ideas, inspiration and insight into the design profession.