Garden Environment 

This unique and experimental landscape located in San Francisco is designed to be a harvestable communal space for all residents to enjoy and reap the benefits of. This not only includes planted foods in a communal garden, but also significant components of roof stormwater collection, redistribution, treatment, and infiltration throughout the flexible communal courtyard area.

Sculptural Hints

The 8,000-square-foot courtyard is a flexible communal gathering and dining area directly adjacent to the interior common room, offering an outdoor space for the community. A grove of fruit trees, raised undulating planters for vegetables and herbs, a native plant rain garden, and a play zone for toddlers and youth bring nuance to the open space. The planters create a sculptural form of varying heights, a rolling topography of bands of concrete and corten steel, colors which provide contrast with the garden’s lush green tones.

The Roots of the Project

The streetscape plantings around the Bayview Hills Gardens Landscape project expanded tree wells and created new extensive understory plantings. INTERSTICE chose a plant palette which centers on South African native species that reinforce the Afro-centric patterns of the balcony and the street’s front windows. These plants are highly adapted to drought and urban conditions, while also adding colorful seasonal bloom and grassy textures at the sidewalk’s edge.

 

 

Connection, Inside and Out

INTERSTICE Architects designed the pavers throughout the courtyard to bring a subtle design element to the outdoor space. The paving band circuitry of the courtyard commences out at the sidewalk as a subtle scoring rhythm in the paving, moving through the interior lobby and connecting the common room to the courtyard. This element provides direct visual connectivity between spaces. These permeable paver areas run between planting wells throughout the courtyard to help reduce stormwater run-off.

 

 

• Landscape
• Residential