Federal environmental agency, Dessau, Germany

The Federal Environmental Agency is designed in a loop-like arrangement that unfurls into imaginative indoor rooms and outdoor spaces. Stringent ecological requirements, such as the use of renewable resources to satisfy the technical demands of building and landscape, are symbolised by single “bio cells”. These cells are presented artistically in the form of islands of dead wood, yew whirls, wind and weather stones and hedgerow snakes along the promenade. The covered courtyard was designed as an artificial landscape with water, reflective and textured surfaces, as well as several exotic trees and shrubs. The memorable form of the elements employed and their unusual materiality, combined with the deliberate selection of plants, create a landscape to be conquered and patinated by nature, which will extend the garden kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz.