A blanket of yellow flowers has been inspiring passers by in the center of Reykjavík since this spring. The blanket of flowers is the design of landscape architect Dagný Bjarnadóttir. ´The flowers are made of steel and yellow caution ribbons and they form a blanket from the Pond to the Nordic House in Reykjavík. There is a certain ambiguity in the installation as the immediate experience is that of a beautiful meadow of flowers but they are made of caution ribbons and bring into focus the question of how we treat our environment.´

Dagný is one of six partners of landscape architecture studio Landslag Ltd. and a member of a FILA (Icelandic Association of Landscape Architects) committee, with whom she has been organising a series of lectures and a symposium in collaboration with the Nordic House, bringing the Icelandic design community the thoughts of some of the most prominent landscape architects of the world with focus on sustainabilty.

Dagný Bjarnadóttir answers the Design Centers questionnaire:

The motivation?
The joy of creating. For me play and joy are very important and each project calls for a fresh approach.The environment itself and the experience of nature are often the drive. It is fun to tease out new opportunities which in their simplicity seem to be awaiting discovery.

The process?
It depends entirely on the project. They range from planning and forming land on a grand scale down to working on the tiniest detail. Gathering information on the lay of the land and its history, nature and topography, all form part of a base one can build on. For me, the atmosphere of each place needs to come through in the project. Sometimes the place itself inspires you. For example, in the installation Svarti portfoss I immediately imagined a waterfall and an experience of nature in a squalid city courtyard. As a landscape architect I work a great deal in forming the land and it is important to master the art of understanding topographical features and to use them to aid and reinforce your creation. I still haven’t let go of the old drawing board. I have to sketch and feel the project with my hands before processing it further on the computer. I often scan in the sketches so as not to lose the original form. In the installations I have made, there is often just a very rough sketch or an idea, but I enjoy donning my workclothes and following the project through.

Your vision?
There are so many opportunities in the city and elsewhere for creating an exciting environment. Now is the time for rolling up sleeves when it comes to our surroundings. For example, city centers Laugavegur should have been pedestrianised a long time ago and we do not need to fill every opening in the city with a building - why not create more squares and spaces for people to live and idle in. We heat the streets for our cars. Why not use the hot water to warm up benches and outdoor spaces? It is well and truly needed. Existing squares are now full of people from March/April well into autumn. We could create truly unique spaces. I could well imagine working on installations in the city, in areas that are neglected and will remain so in the foreseeable future. This could be done with cheap materials but interesting content.The same applies to tourist destinations. Opportunities abound. I would like to see the The Icelandic Road Administration back a similar initiative to their Norwegian counterpart in cooperation with Norway’s Design Centre. Tourists in Norway now seek out attractions as much for their great design as for nature itself. Here we are well on our way to ruining many of our natural treasures with unprofessional workmanship.

Does design matter?
Good design matters a great deal. Sometimes good design is so well thought out that you don’t notice it. It just makes you feel good. Perhaps that´s the best recommendation. For me, the ultimate return on a good environmental design is improved quality of life and a better society in general.

What makes a good design?
I feel that a good design gives some kind of wellbeing. It can evoke delight, surprise, joy - even laughter. For me, good design usually grows out of a deep understanding of the subject and intuition – along with a feeling for the use of materials and aesthetics. Sometimes even psychology plays a part. But the workmanship also needs to be good and a good craftsman is crucial when it comes to finishing a design.

What is most interesting at the moment?
I think we are sailing into a new era when it comes to thinking about the environment, health, sustainability and so on. We have reached the end of this age of avarice and I believe we will emerge as better human beings from this difficult period. I sense a great deal of creativity in people and a will to build a new and better society. I am a member of a FILA (Icelandic Association of Landscape Architects) committee and we have organised a series of lectures and a symposium with the Nordic House under the title Betri tíð með blóm í haga (Better times with flowers in the meadows). People may have noticed the  blanket of yellow flowers by the Nordic House but this is an installation I designed to be the Association’s contribution to DesignMarch, which is when our lecture series began. The flowers are made of steel and yellow caution ribbons and they form a blanket from the Pond to the Nordic House in Reykjavík. There is a certain ambiguity in the installation as the immediate experience is that of a beautiful meadow of flowers but they are made of caution ribbons and bring into focus the question of how we treat our environment. When I started figuring out ways of folding the ribbons, a method I had learnt making tulips out of paper came back to me. All accumulated knowledge later finds its use somewhere. This  project was realised with the help of Hlutverkasetur who made all the flowers – 3,300 altogether - and they and members of FILA helped me plant them.

Last Friday, 26 June, we held the symposium under the heading “Sustainability and Design”. The world’s leading landscape architects gave talks and the journal Topos awarded the Landscape Award. This year it was won by Mcgregor + Coxall from Sydney, Australia for their unique designs in the field of sustainability. www.mcgregorpartners.com.au I am still digesting the content of the talks which just got better and better.

On Saturday 27 June, prizes were awarded in a miniature garden competition under the auspices of FILA and Hveragerði Council. These formed part of the town’s gardening show. I designed one of the six gardens chosen for realisation but participation was restricted to landscape architects. My entry is called þúfnahopp (tussock leap) and it is the Icelandic tussock stylised into a play environment for the child in us all. It was incredibly fun to see the tussocks like ant hills full of leaping children. I formed the tussocks from a mound of sand in the Steypustöðin (Concrete Plant) but the ornamental garden company Garðvélar laid the rubber onto the tussocks and put down the yellow artificial grass. The miniature gardens are on an empty plot of land next to Hótel Örk, that you can see when driving into town. This coming week will also see an exhibition of all the entries in Arnesingar Art Gallery.

Design of all time?
A great deal fascinates but I find the environmental art of husband and wife team Christo and Jeanne-Claude mesmerising. It is realised and made immortal in photographs. I find it amazing that they were born on the same day 13 June 1935 in two different countries. The grand scale and even grander landscape context aside, their work reflects such courage because these colossal creations have such short lifespans and their continued work is funded by selling photographs of it.

Global/local?
I think that when we Icelanders leave our inferiority complex behind and stand for what we do best, then we are global in everything we choose to do. Imagine how few good things 300,000 people need to do to have a positive effect. We are just a tiny fraction of a big city but have all this quality in the land and in our knowledge of it. If we play our cards right and harness this creative energy properly then nothing but good can come of it.