Thin blue strings are stretched among arch-shaped frames to create tunnels across the cloister garden of a French cathedral .
Paris studio Atelier YokYok developed the Les Voûtes Filantes – or The Shooting Vaults – set up within the 16th-century Gothic-fashion cloister at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Cahors, south-west France.
The designers used taut strings to type enclosed passages along the existing pathways of the garden, which run diagonally from the corners to a central circle.
The strings are stretched between thin metal frames shaped like arches from different architectural designs.
“Arcs of all origins are linked to 1 one more by a colourful woven construction that performs with light and mystery, revealing a light, dematerialised architecture,” explained Atelier Yokyok.
The shapes include a quadrant and a semicircular arch, as nicely as an ogee arch and a lancet arch – each common of Gothic architecture. The latter echoes the pointed arches that surround the backyard.
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Two arches are positioned at both end of every single path in non-matching pairs.
Arranged close collectively, the rows of strings merge the shapes of the arches and generate semi-transparent coverings that guests can stroll beneath.
The edge of each and every inner frame is joined to its neighbour with a lot more strings, forming a square fence about the circular planting characteristic at the garden’s centre.
“The stroller is guided in the direction of the centre of the great deal: a secret cloister,” mentioned the studio.
Further strings lengthen from the outer arches to sections of the cathedral developing to help keep the construction stable.
The set up will remain in place until finally the end of June 2015. It is 1 of three winning tasks in Cahors’ landscape garden competition, organised as portion of the Festival Juin Jardins Cahors 2015 that involves 25 open gardens around the city.