{"id":9330,"date":"2019-10-26T13:02:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T10:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/%ce%bf%ce%b9-%cf%83%cf%84%cf%81%cf%89%cf%84%ce%ae%cf%81%ce%b5%cf%82-%cf%81%ce%ac%ce%b3%ce%b1%cf%82-%cf%84%cf%81%ce%b1%ce%af%ce%bd%ce%bf%cf%85-railway-sleepers-%cf%83%cf%84%ce%b7%ce%bd-%ce%b1%cf%81\/"},"modified":"2019-12-28T11:19:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T09:19:27","slug":"rail-sleepers-in-garden-and-landscape-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/rail-sleepers-in-garden-and-landscape-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Rail sleepers in Garden and Landscape Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wooden railway sleepers are only used in railway construction, although they are gradually being replaced by metal or concrete. But their usefulness seems to have expanded to the construction of gardens and to landscaping of any scale, slope and purpose.<\/p>\n

The most common sleepers are made of oak wood, thus being more resistant to damage and spoilage by wood-eating insects and rotting pests.<\/p>\n

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Layer separation and support<\/p><\/div>\n

All types of sleepers are treated with wood-protecting materials, by impregnating them in preservatives. There are commercially available sleepers of various colours and strengths such as of African wood, eucalyptus, coniferous, etc.<\/p>\n

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Creation of floors for pedestrians and vehicles<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

In recent years, sleepers, whether used by railways or imitated, have made an impressive appearance in Landscape Architecture and Gardening. Their uses are varied, highly functional and aesthetic, replacing concrete or stone solutions, or even inadequate timber structures of limited durability and strength.<\/p>\n

Let’s not forget the decorative use of sleepers by Basque painter and sculptor Agust\u00edn Ibarrola, with his impressive railway sleeper sculptures that gave a different visual dimension to the usability of the material.<\/p>\n

We summarize their uses into seven main categories:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Construction of a rustic garden<\/u><\/strong> with vertical sleepers, delimiting open spaces or alternating levels. For aesthetic reasons, they do not need to be at the same height, rather in an uneven layout. Often, the sleepers are treated to look more natural, either “sun-baked” or “windblown”.<\/li>\n
  2. Creation of traffic paths<\/u><\/strong>, using sleepers, car parking floors in various configurations and shapes depending on the purpose.<\/li>\n
  3. Plot walls<\/u><\/strong> made of sleepers, mainly in country houses, which make an impression with the use of suitable plantings (hedges).<\/li>\n
  4. Garden and open space decoration<\/u><\/strong> in the city with colourful and wood carved sleepers.<\/li>\n
  5. Creation of steps <\/u><\/strong>in the garden or in the park, in the sloping terrain of our space, in combination with layers of fine pebbles or chippings.<\/li>\n
  6. Creation of terraces<\/u><\/strong> with sleepers instead of retaining walls, giving a more natural look to the garden, while serving an anti-erosion, stabilizing and aesthetic purpose.<\/li>\n
  7. Fixed or removable plant containers<\/u><\/strong> made with sleepers for planting large trees and shrubs in private and public spaces.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    Sculptures in a landscape with sleepers (Agust\u00edn Ibarrola, Spain)<\/p><\/div>\n

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    Composition of processed sleepers (container with white pebbles and Buxus sempervirens).<\/p><\/div>\n

    HERMES SA has genuine sleepers intended for any of the uses mentioned above, in large quantities of high quality. The reasons we focus on this material, which is already offered abroad for many construction uses and solutions, is that it has become increasingly necessary to move away from the common solutions in terms of design and environmental construction, as well as to familiarise with new materials and practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Wooden railway sleepers are only used in railway construction, although they are gradually being replaced by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9330"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9332,"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330\/revisions\/9332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/votsalo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}