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London-based design practice Gustafson Porter and Seattle firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol have designed the first major landscape installation at the Venice Biennale.

Towards Paradise is sited at the end of the Arsenale, within the overgrown grounds of the former Church of the Virgins, a Benedictine nunnery that was destroyed in the late 1800s.

Credit: Grant Smith

Visitors at the Arsenale experienced the project鈥檚 鈥榗louds鈥�, suspended above the garden by helium balloons

The firms were commissioned by Biennale director Aaron Betsky to create the installation, as part of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition.

The landscape designers have worked with the premise of the 2008 Biennale, entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond 黑洞社区, which states 鈥�.. architecture is not building鈥� (it) is something else.鈥�

Neil Porter, director of Gustafson Porter, said: "Landscape architecture is a greatly neglected subject from a curatorial point of view, so we are hugely excited by the opportunity of engaging with visitors at the Biennale.

"The architecture of buildings and landscapes are clearly intrinsically linked and it is crucial that we work to uplift and enhance the built environment around us.

Credit: Grant Smith

'Towards Paradise鈥� at the Venice Biennale

"In his brief for the landscape installation, Betsky quoted Voltaire鈥檚 Candide, 鈥業l faut cultiver notre jardin鈥�, meaning 鈥榯o cultivate one鈥檚 garden鈥�, or to tend to one鈥檚 affairs.

"Towards Paradise is conceived as a contemporary allegory in the broadest sense.

"It will take the visitor on a journey through earthly dilemmas, evoking what has been lost and what can be gained.

"Telling a story of past, present and future, the garden is composed of two main spaces linked by pathways cleared from the overgrowth of the abandoned garden."