La Jolla, California
An installation of three giant AirplantFrames transforms an outdoor space at ecoATM's Barnes Canyon headquarters in San Diego. The project's landscape architect reached out to Airplantman to help add a memorable living art piece to their reclaimed wood backdrop. This project occurs on a creative office campus where providing a variety of spaces for employees to work, play, eat, and think was a priority. The climate of Southern California makes many an office worker look longingly at the sunshine outside and long for some fresh air. It has become the norm for developers and architects to prioritize creating engaging outdoor environments for commercial spaces to capture the cutting edge demograhic who expect more from their office than a cubicle with florescent lighting. The result is a win/win as worker happiness and productivity increases, owners receive a higher return, and designers can exercise their creativity. This is one of many tech campus projects we have worked on, enjoying adding the finishing touches with our fresh, unique, and modern take on living art.
The design collaboration with the project's landscape architect lead to a series of 5'x3' orange AirplantFrames displayed vertically. We love creating this kind of 'tryptic' look where the plants are displayed in a manner evoking a series of canvases. The repetition and bold forms are instantly eye-catching and draw visitors up to the dining table adjacent to this piece. Bold lime green furniture works well with the orange color which also compliments the bright green foliage colors. A series of grey and nearly white Tillandsia work well with the muted colors of the reclaimed wood fence, tying the piece together to numerous elements within the site. The powder coated aluminum and hand strung stainless steel cable of our unique AirplantFrame design makes the pieces lightweight, waterproof, and the perfect way to display air plants.
For this project the client requested we include numerous spectacular Tillandsia tectorum. These air plants might be called the king, if nothing more for their fuzzy foliage that seems to draw people in like nothing else. The fuzzy appearance is caused by the leaves being covered in particularly large trichomes. These tiny leaf structures are what allows Tillandsia to control water flow into and out of their leaves. Also providing protection from harsh sunlight the tectorum species grows in the high altitude of the Andes where bright sunlight is particularly harsh due to increased exposure to UV rays. To compensate for this the tectorum took the typical fuzziness exhibited in the trichomes of all Tillandsia to the next level. The result is sometimes used as christmas tree decoration by locals who see it as a perfect stand in for snow with its bright white color and soft fuzzy texture. Unfortunately the rarity and slow growth of this species makes it a bit hard to use in every project, but we love it when we can! The piece is rounded out with a variety of Tillandsia species including concolor, brachycaulos, stricta, aeranthos, bergeri, ionantha, juncea and xerographica. Care is simple and rather than install an automatic irrigation system the client simply sprays with a hose a few times a week until dripping wet. The open trellis overhead provide a perfect level of filtered sunlight for Tillandsia to thrive in this frost free climate.