Designing at Fairy Scale
By Takako Tajima
Fairy gardens are generally comprised of live plant material and fairy garden accessories (i.e. fairy figurines, tiny houses, little gates and fences, and petite furniture) to create an environment at a miniature scale for its imagined fairy residents. Lecturer Tajima was motivated to design fairy gardens because they have a unique capacity to be conceived at multiple scales simultaneously. Like fairies, the fairy scale is strange and magical. The gardens are created at 1:1 fairy scale. However, they are also to be enjoyed purely for its 1:1 planting design AND can serve as a scaled model for imagining new landscapes and architecture for human beings. According to her research, fairies range in height from 2 ½” to 3” so fairy gardens can be perceived at approximately ½” = 1’-0”.