Following the earthquake of 2010 that ravaged the island of Haiti, the American Red Cross financed the public space Tapis Rouge through the LAMIKA Program. Tapis Rouge was a multifunctional space where the inhabitants of Carrefour Feuilles could meet to improve social cohesion and discuss community matters: there was one space for sport, and another for meetings, and, of course, artistic expression in the form of murals painted by local artists. The digging of a well guaranteed the long-term maintenance of the gardens and ensured a steady water supply for the community.
Our mission was to find a combination of plants that, on the one hand, provided shade for an open-air amphitheatre aimed at promoting social gatherings and, on the other hand, enhanced its balconies with a proliferation of colours and textures in keeping with the original design created by EVA Studio. The intense sun beating down on the concentric circles in the square will gradually be replaced by shady spaces as the acacias and flamboyants grow. The four balconies with their different shades of green exude an air of coolness, and the varieties we selected for their resistance to high temperatures are mulched with pine bark in order to minimise water evaporation.
