Jeff Lorenz Tells the Story of Refugia’s Award-Winning Show Garden, The Inner Landscape

Creating an immersive experience through landscapes is not an uncommon goal in our industry. Few, however, have taken this to the extent Jeff Lorenz, founder of Refugia, an acclaimed landscape design-build firm based in Philadelphia, saw fit for this project. As a former sound designer for a theater production team (distinguished by the work of his romantic partner and current creative director Kayla Fell), Jeff envisioned the 2022 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Flower Show at Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park as an opportunity to muster his love for nature and audio.

“The name ‘The Inner Landscape’ is sort of an homage to this wonderful episode of ‘On Being,’ that radio show with Krista Tippet, featuring the late poet and philosopher John

O’Donohue,” says Jeff. “They called that episode The Inner Landscape of Beauty, and one point John made that resonated with us was about the importance of holding something beautiful in your mind in times of desperation or suffering. We have done several indoor flower shows over the years, but this was the opportunity we had been waiting for—to create a beautiful experience, surrounding people with layers of native plants, sound and little discovery points to meander through outdoors.”

Using seemingly magical technology—a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) system built by Jeff’s friend and client Sam Cusumano at Electricity For Progress—Jeff achieved biodata sonification. Microcurrent fluctuations occurring on plant leaves and inside mushrooms translated into waves detectable by the human ear. Echoes from the Instagrammable megaphone-like wood structure built by the team infused an illusion that the child voicing their cheerful observations far up the path stood only a few feet away. This was not just a landscape exhibit. It was also an experiential soundscape.

“As a sound designer, my job was to transport the audience to the outback of Tasmania, the hull of a ship or a crowded market,” says Jeff. “The challenge was to do it in a way where no one thinks about it. The idea is to craft a passive, yet impactful experience. Applying that skillset to a public outdoor space was so much fun.”

Walking along the Swedish boardwalk, visitors would find signage acknowledging the cause of their goosebumps. Before coming across the words, “Soil Orchestra,” a person might never know why the boards vibrated and croaked under their feet. Even less likely would be their understanding that the vibrations rhythmically correlated to the sound of microfauna living in the dirt.

“Giving people an idea of what they are hearing or seeing, without being too heavy-handed, is the balance with signage,” says Jeff. “What makes Refugia successful is our playful approach to our projects and our respect for simplicity. You want to avoid overwhelming people with information, but once you pique their curiosity, they want to read more.”

Beyond the “Soil Orchestra,” the bald cypress planks from the boardwalk blended effortlessly into the diamond-shaped Pennsylvania bluestone pavers in the shaded sitting area. In the original design, the pavers were supposed to mimic a honeycomb pattern with a hexagonal shape. When the local quarry that supplied the stone for the naturalistic water feature showed Refugia their surplus inventory, the team was more than satisfied with this alternative for the patio. The seamlessness of that transition was more or less a happy accident. What was not an accident was the decision to incorporate fungi on the gothic redwood archway, repurposed from a previous flower show.

“To block the rain, we made these rather waterproof sheets out of the mycelium from these reishi mushrooms,” says Jeff. “They held up well. I know there have been experiments using fungi and mycelium as building materials. That’s why we wanted to feature this. In our office, we are excited about the potential future applications, and the idea was to bring that concept into view and put it at eye level. On the inside, you can see the fruiting bodies. The reishi mushrooms are just wild. Once we unwrapped the grow bags, they started expanding, getting bigger and bigger, and then hardening off with a woody texture during the show.”

To Jeff, show exhibits are an opportunity to demonstrate what landscapes can be. By his estimate, Refugia reuses or repurposes 95 percent of the plants and materials in their various landscape projects afterward. In addition to sonification and subtle avant-garde material exposure, this landscape display set a high caliber for native plant usage.

“This project, The Inner Landscape, does mirror our mission at Refugia to create enough plant density in our landscapes that it becomes increasingly difficult for invasive, introduced plants to make their way in,” says Jeff. “Think the opposite of mulch beds and instead imagine covering every square foot of the gardens with diverse root types: fibrous rooting and tap rooting plants. We are play- ing with the idea of turning that property back into a sponge—if that is what it was before.”

Analyzing the endless points of interest that lived in this landscape steered the interview for this article in many different directions. Titles could have included “Scale: How Varying Plant Heights Can Create the Illusion That a Landscape is Far More Spacious Than the Reality”; “Linearity: What a Path Can Do For a Park Visitor’s Experience”; “Attracting Pollinators: Why Birds and Other Varieties of Native Bees Deserve Their Spotlight Along- side Honeybees.” The through-line for it all comes down to a greater purpose.

“We are in a situation environmentally that is likely far more disastrous than we are aware of,” says Jeff. “And so, it is even more important to inspire people to fall in love with nature enough that they want to care for it. Any awareness we can offer without pushing it on people is imperative. A display like this allows people to engage at their own pace.”

What do you think? Will the inspirational sound waves from The Inner Landscape hit your landscape projects anytime soon?

Water fountains are one way to elevate a project from an auditory perspective, but raising the volume of fauna in the soil may be a whole new can of worms in most cases. Regardless of the method, taking people away from their mental burdens for a moment is a form of art worth celebrating. In working on public spaces, professionals in our industry have the opportunity to start a chain reaction of inspiration, maybe one big enough to reverse the current on climate change progression.

Jeff Lorenz

Founder of Refugia Design

www.refugiadesign.com