Landscaping the grounds of the Svitlopark residential complex

What we made

The most visible pieces on the site are conical planters with fluted walls. The vertical ribs end in a serrated rim, and in sunlight every face casts its own shadow, so the volume reads even from a distance. The planters stand singly and in rows on the square between the buildings and in the courtyard by the playground, each holding a tree.

The planting beds on the squares are concrete pieces in their own right: large raised beds that break at an angle and round off at the turns. The concrete retains the soil, so the shape of the planting is drawn by the bed itself rather than by a kerb stone. Along some of the beds runs seating: faceted concrete segments with timber decking follow a broken line along the edge of the planting.

On the walkways between the lawns and the conifer planting stand benches with concrete loop supports and a timber seat; by the entrances and along the pavements, concrete litter bins with a sloping lid. Both the benches and the bins are catalogue models. Around the trees on one of the squares are concrete tree-base cones.

The bed as a piece

A planting bed is usually laid on site from kerb stones, and its edge is noticed only once it cracks or tilts. Here the bed is a finished concrete piece and part of the composition: the same grey mass as the planters and the bench supports, the same smooth faces, so everything on the site reads as one series rather than as an assortment from different suppliers.

Where seating runs along a bed, timber is left only on the surface people touch. Everything else — the height, the angle, the line of the turn — is held by the concrete.

Why concrete outdoors

A courtyard works all year round: snow and de-icing salt, downpours, summer sun. The pigment is mixed into the body of the concrete rather than applied on top, so a chip or a scratch does not expose a different colour under a layer of paint — unlike painted metal. The surface is treated with a water repellent.

The matte surface with its visible pores is the character of the material, not a defect. The concrete here imitates nothing: neither stone nor wood.