The recreational landscape ‘Over Sø og Land’ (Over Sea and Land) at Tarup-Davinde 

Head of project: Lise Bendix Madsen, landscape architect, MDL Design.

I was invited to create design, equipment, and buildings to guide the visitors through a recreational landscape and get close to nature. It was important for me to frame the natural setting and the visual beauty of the place. 

One of the first new concepts I learned about was a stile – a ladder or set up steps that allows people but not animals to climb over a fence or a wall. It occurred to me that when we are in nature, we rarely look back. However, when we climb a stile we turn halfway to face backwards, and we see where we came from. That adds a new element to the nature experience. This idea became a key principle and led to the fan-shaped stile that I’m honoured to see people have nicknamed the jewel. 

The fan shape is a universal expression. There is a simple beauty in something that fans out from a central point. Like lines in a landscape that come together in a vanishing point. The shape became my device for bringing all the elements of the area together in a coherent idiom – from the brochure stand to wickerwork shelters. Shady nooks for horses and cows were made using fan-shaped elements and have been nicknamed ‘butterflies’ by visitors to the area. Willow is a beautiful material that blends in with the natural setting, where willow trees are naturally present. There is an honesty and a sustainable quality to willow that perfectly matches the spirit of the project. Wicker has a beautiful transparent expression – and the making of wicker can be taught as a social workshop activity. 

Boathouses by the lake contains canoes that visitors can rent. I chose to place the boathouses back to back, so they form a wedge in the landscape pointing towards the footpath – again, the fan shape.  

For me, this was a process of pursuing a simple, universal, beautiful form that also has a functional purpose – letting it lead to a harmonious and coherent solution.The landscape at Tarup-Davinde on the Danish island of Funen (Fyn) was shaped by years of quarrying for raw materials. With the recreational landscape ’Over Sea and Land’ the municipal partnership Tarup-Davinde I/S wanted to develop the biggest possible coherent natural and leisure area in the former quarries in the area.