Medtronic Patent Garden

Aerial view of the garden.

Project Details

• Project Name: Medtronic Patent Garden
• Client: Medtronic Corporation
• Project Type: Garden
• Principal Designer/s: Tom Oslund, Tadd Kreun
• Design Team: oslund.and.assoc.
• Contractor/s: McGough Construction
• Date of completion of project: 2001
• Location of site: Fridley, Minnesota, USA
• Site Area: 10,000 sq. ft. / 929 sq. meters

The rectangular pool acting as a kind of a gateway into the garden space, as seen here in winter.

The Project

The project is a courtyard garden within the larger master-plan for the new campus of the Medtronic Corporation in Fridley, Minnesota. Medtronic is a company involved in biomedical research, and this particular design for a 'zen garden' was evolved to celebrate the company's unique achievements in acquiring over 3000 patents.

Detail of the Corten wall, mediating between the hard and soft surfaces of the garden space

As described by the designers:

Individual courtyard spaces throughout the Medtronic campus provide respite from the rigors of biomedical research. The Patent Garden is intended to provide an area of contemplation, celebration and inspiration - as well as commemorate the tireless efforts of the company's many scientists and engineers who have helped the company acquire over 3000 patents.

Snow rests upon the edge of the Corten wall, highlighting its form and movement, during winter.

The garden is located between a parking facility, a pedestrian link and the walls of the corporate library and research center, and may have become an uninteresting and vacant space between buildings.

By engaging simple design elements and materials, the garden became a Zen-like courtyard space. It is a perfect square, 100' on each side, of crushed stone. Centered within the square is a 70' wide circle of lawn enclosed by a 1" - thick Corten steel wall. The symbolism inherent within the act of squaring the circle is intended to reconcile the heavenly and infinite with the earthly and man-made, and provides the backdrop for the contemplative space.

Late afternoon shadows fall across a section of 'patent buttons,' each etched with the number of a currently held patent and embedded in the wall according to decade.

The square horizontal plane of the base form offers counterpoints to the vertical forms of the spiralling Corten-Steel wall, the specimen Red Maple and deciduous and evergreen plantings. The Corten-Steel wall spirals up from grade to a height of 10', representing the ever-increasing rate of innovation, acting as an abstract gallery from which to display an array of patent buttons. Stainless steel buttons, each etched with the number of a currently held patent, are embedded in the wall according to decade. Individual brass buttons represent patents of distinction.

A closer view of the grid of stainless steel 'patent buttons.'

The single Red Maple tree brings vitality and a focal point to the space in the fall months. In the spring and summer the green canopy provides a cooling shade for the garden. A rectangular reflecting pool filled with smooth river stones moves across a portion of the lawn. This pool becomes, with the additional buffer of deciduous and evergreen plantings, a gateway into the space of the garden. The design allows for a multiplicity of uses and functionality. Individual contemplation and inspiration, as well as large group gatherings can be accomplished within this space without losing the feeling of subtlety and Zen-like calm.

Intersection of materials used in the garden space.

Credits

• Text: David Motzenbecker
• Photographs: George Heinrich, Tadd Kreun, Peter Vevang
• Compiled and Edited by Suprio Bhattacharjee