Atelier Faber has unveiled Solum, a groundbreaking spatial and landscape installation that transforms an abandoned well site in Luxembourg City into a powerful demonstration of ecological recovery. The project, which was presented at LUGA (Luxembourg's international exhibition of urban gardens), uses a striking combination of reeds and local sandstone to illustrate the gradual restoration of soil porosity, an essential but often overlooked environmental process.
The installation employs a deliberately stark design approach, featuring materials that are directly connected to the region's hydrological history. Architects Luca Antognoli and Gabriel Pontoizeau arranged dense, linear bands of reeds as an allegory for wetlands, positioning them above pillars made from Luxembourg sandstone. This local stone serves as the geological foundation that formed the country's largest aquifer, making it both historically and environmentally significant to the project's concept.
The vertical and horizontal layering of these materials creates what the architects describe as a deliberately archaic, almost primeval landscape. This design choice emphasizes the slow but intelligent ways that natural systems respond to climate challenges. The installation traces how inert, compacted earth gradually gets reclaimed by living organisms, ultimately restoring the soil permeability that communities need to buffer droughts, absorb rainfall effectively, and stabilize urban water cycles.
Atelier Faber grounded their design approach in the site's own post-industrial ecology, taking advantage of the natural recovery process that began when human activity withdrew from the former well location. Over time, the land has essentially restarted its biological clock, with vegetation re-establishing itself without any irrigation, human intervention, or careful curation. The resulting plant life, which had to be resilient by necessity, represents exactly the species that are most naturally adapted to the specific soil conditions and microclimate of the area.
The design team's landscaping strategy focuses on reinforcing this spontaneous ecosystem that has already begun to emerge. Their approach includes increasing the density of existing shrubs, introducing ruderal annual and perennial plants in nitrogen-rich pockets of soil, and complementing the drier zones with hardy grasses and other annual plants that can thrive in challenging conditions.
The structure itself maintains an intentionally minimal material palette, composed exclusively of reeds and Luxembourg sandstone. This pairing directly mirrors the conceptual foundation of the entire installation, serving as a powerful reminder that soil permeability is fundamentally shaped by both the underlying geology and the living systems that gradually colonize and transform the land over time. Through Solum, Atelier Faber demonstrates how thoughtful design can highlight and accelerate natural recovery processes in post-industrial landscapes.
