Parametric Strip Garden
Year: 2025
Location: Urbana, IL
Status: Built
Hinterlands Team: Conor O’Shea, Themistocles Frangias
Contractor: Clarence Davids & Company
Plant Nursery: Midwest Groundcovers, Pizzo Native Plant Nursery
The planting design process for this 2,500 SF garden incorporated cutting edge parametric tools, and mixed-reality was utilized for portions of the plant layout.
By experimenting at the intersection of computation, planting design, ecology, and aesthetics, Hinterlands was able to develop unique plant combinations with contrasting colors, textures, and forms that support native insect populations and engage passersby with unexpected botanical moments that shift dramatically from season to season.
For example, the “Black and Red” mix features a tight grid of Ophiopogon planiscapus (Black Mondo Grass) forming a groundcover layer through which Arisaema triphyllum (Jack-in-the-Pulpit) erupts in the spring, later transforming into upright stalks with a distinct bulbous red fruit. In late April and early May, the nectar-rich fiery red-orange flowers of the Aquilegia canadensis (Wild Columbine) dance in the air, attracting hummingbirds migrating north for the summer. Over time, the Columbine will break from the rigid running bond planting pattern and move around the garden through self-seeding.
The “Back 2 School” mix aligns flowering times with the return of students, faculty, and staff to campus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, situated blocks from the garden. Mixed blocks of Solidago caesia (Blue-stemmed Goldenrod) and Eurybia divaricata (White Wood Aster) are more colorful and bushier counterpoints to the nearby uniform beds of Carex albicans (White-tinged Sedge)and Carex radiata (Eastern Star Sedge).
