a person climbs the spiral staircase to look out over the earth ripple installation
Photography by Pieter Kers.

September 7, 2022

Words: Wilson Barlow and Lisa Di Venuta

4 Global Firms Reinvent Outdoor Space

From Prague to St. Louis, firms are inventing and repurposing outdoor space with newfound creativity.

Wutopia Lab

Golden Barnyard, Cockaigne of Everyman, Shanghai

  • a circular pattern in red on top of yellow concrete
    Photography by CreatAR Images.
  • a bust sits atop the yellow concrete pavilion
    Photography by CreatAR Images.
  • a bust sits atop the yellow concrete pavilion and a person runs in the back
    Photography by CreatAR Images.
  • a person walks across the exterior of Golden Barnyard
    Photography by CreatAR Images.
  • a bird's eye view of Golden Barnyard
    Photography by CreatAR Images.
  • Golden Barnyard, a working rice and rapeseed farm converted into an outside activity area
    Photography by CreatAR Images.

On a working rice and rapeseed farm, a 2-acre expanse once used for food processing has been converted into a place for outside movie screenings and similar activities, named after the land of plenty from medieval lore, complete with rolling piles of “grain” in porous yellow concrete.

Hosper

VisKringloop, Wieringermeer, Netherlands

  • a person climbs the spiral staircase to look out over the earth ripple installation
    Photography by Pieter Kers.
  • Photography by Pieter Kers.
  • wheat blows in the wind in front of the spiral staircase
    Photography by Pieter Kers.
  • people line up walking toward the spiral staircase
    Photography by Pieter Kers.

A collaboration between the landscape architecture firm, artist Pé Okx, and ecologist Cor ten Haaf, visitors can climb a painted-steel staircase for a birds-eye view of this earthwork, its ripplelike forms symbolizing the life cycle of the fish that live within and part of a 40-acre site devoted to improving their migration between fresh and salt water.

KOGAA

Air Square, Prague

  • people circling around Air Square
    Photography by Javier Antón.
  • a group of performers dance inside Air Square
    Photography by Marcia Davis.
  • the Air Square is lit up at night
    Photography by Kubícˇek.Studio.
  • people sit under Air Square
    Photography by Josema Cuttilas.

A partnership with hot-air balloon maker Kubícˇek Visionair yielded prefabricated, recyclable partitions of inflatable FR-coated polyester that, when supported by a base of CNC-cut plywood planks, can be arranged into a 20-foot-high, interlocking circle for a partially shaded and protected plug-in park or performance locale.

Kiku Obata & Company

Spring Church, St. Louis

  • Spring Church in St. Louis
    Photography by Virginia Harold.
  • a look at the All Our Liberations installation inside Spring Church
    Photography by Alise O’Brien.
  • a look into Spring Church
    Photography by Alise O’Brien.

Courtesy of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, the limestone shell of a 19th-century Gothic revival–style church ravaged by fire has been fortified and revitalized into a combination open-air house of worship/public art space, which recently featured Jordan Weber’s installation All Our Liberations, its three tiers painted with words by local poet Cheeraz Gormon.

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