The colorful new centerpiece of the 2022 Floriade horticultural exhibition is now set to debut after MVRDV announced the completion of its 43.5-meter (142-foot) Flores Tower in the Dutch city of Almere.
The vibrant structure comes complete with a custom-made, AR-enabled panoramic facade artwork titled Sympoiesis from Rotterdam-based Arttenders and the Flemish artist Alex Verhaest.
Taking the surrounding MVRDV-designed arboretum as its inspiration, the glass-paneled facade is activated by a digital scripting technique that projects a layered composition with images of 1,800 different floral species taken from various databases and university libraries.
The illustration covers the full catalog of plants and flowers available to visitors of the expo with an interpretive key located in the building’s plinth that offers itself as a proportionate wayfinding guide indicating the distance between the fauna and tower itself.
“I found the idea of the summary panorama of the Arboretum very appealing,” founder Winy Maas said of the final product. “Like librarians in the mold of a contemporary Alexander von Humboldt, we have converted 1,800 species into images, a truly painstaking job. Alex's artistic signature then yields this picturesque total work of art.”
The tower will play a central role in the Floriade Expo with various retail and dining amenities coming online as the 2022 exhibition kicks off on April 14th. The building will then be repurposed into residential housing with a total of 80 apartments available for rent at the culmination of the expo. The expo ends on October 9th.
3 Comments
"Flower power" lmao. These firms need to stop with the bullshit gimmicks
Let's hear it for paint, everybody!
I like the execution - on these photos at least - but the explanation from Maas sounded weak. Where's a "We did it cos we thought it looked cool" when you need one.
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