Helping to take you away to the sunny shores of Hawaii at this year’s Philadelphia International Flower show are students from Temple University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture.
With guidance from faculty members Robert Kuper and Mike LoFurno, sixteen junior landscape architecture students will present Aloha ‘aina: A Return to Life with the Land. Inspired by the Hawaiian words aloha and aina, students set out to traverse time and space taking guests to a place where people live in harmony with the land.
Because this year’s show isn’t as site specific as in the past—last year’s show was Springtime in Paris—there is less landscape architectural history to pull from. Students pulled instead from the ancient history and culture of the islands. The construction of the exhibit, which is purposely irregular in shape, presented another challenge for students who are more accustomed to conceptual ideas and generalizations.
Aligning with the students’ curriculum and the ideals of sustainable design, many of the exhibits pieces will be reused, recycled or renewed after the show. The log posts cut from wooded areas of campus will be returned to serve the needs of insects, fungus and other woodland creatures while wood used elsewhere in the exhibit will be reused on future exhibits. The plants that will create the lush quality of the islands will be planted on the Ambler campus and sold at the university’s annual plant sale.
What to expect at the show:
- A papercrete mountain with flowing water (to express the importance of water to the Hawaii people and to note its’ every changing nature)
- Two Ahu towers made primarily from items collected on the Ambler campus
- A palate of purple and guava representing the soil of the islands
- A logo inspired by the geometric shapes of ancient Hawaiian tattoos
