Chaumont garden design competition 2010

The Hortitherapie sensorielle design won at Chaumont in 2010

The Hortitherapie sensorielle design won at Chaumont in 2010


Congratulations to Stefano MARINAZ, Francesca VACIRCA and Daniela TONEGATTI for having their garden built at the 2010 Chaumont sur Loire Garden Design Festival in France. The three Italian designers met when studying on the masters programme in landscape architecture at the University of Greenwich.
The garden design concept for Hortitherapie sensorielle was to create a place where plants restore balance and harmony to the visitor’s body and mind. A sculpture of a resting woman (above centre, and below) draws visitors into the first garden compartment. She relaxes among the plants, calmed by a wavy line of bamboo canes. Another compartment has a sauna garden releasing fragrance and wrapping visitors a misty scent, delivering well-being. The potager compartment reminds visitors of the plants which produce kitchen aromas. It is a biodynamic vegetable garden. These plants can also be planted among vegetables to attract pollinating insects and deter predatory insects. The massage garden guides visitors through plants with different textures and scents. They massage the visitors’ legs and soothe their spirits. The perfume garden shows the beneficial oils and elixirs which have been extracted from herbs for centuries. They are in colourful jars. As Oscar Wilde remarked: “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul”.
Landscape and garden designers should pay more attention to design competitions: successes in this field is one of the most reliable and most rewarding avenues to professional success.

7 thoughts on “Chaumont garden design competition 2010

  1. Jonathan Fitch

    As a participant in the Chaumont Festival in 2008, I can attest to the excitement of having the proposal of my firm, Landscape Architecture Bureau,accepted and built by the festival. At the same time, however, it should be noted that 20 or so gardens/temporary installations are premiated each year. There has never been, to my knowledge, a single “winner.” While the garden by Marinaz, Vacirca and Tonegatti that you cite is both interesting and beautiful, it is NOT the “winner.” Saying so does a disservice to the other terrific proposals that were accepted for the festival.

    Reply
  2. xiaomin

    A man, who is active and social somehow, when he looks at the image, said: “I feel an impulse to push down all the sheet arrangement”——-it looks more like Domino Game Set. Wow, It is interesting speaking that Garden design is relevant to art, but more than the pure art, which is a sense of a place and functional.

    Reply
  3. Tom Turner Post author

    Do you mean like the dominos in Berlin?
    But yes, the aims of garden design are often to create spaces for use and beauty.
    The Americans were terribly against the Berlin Wall but are now building something very like it between the US and Mexico.

    Reply
  4. Kat

    Thanks for this write up and the images, I would love to go to Chaumont one day. I like the fact that it champions creativity in garden and landscape design, all the so called ‘garden shows’ we have here in Australia tend to be glorified garden centres with most focused on selling wheel barrows and tacky water features rather than doing anything creative with design. I also wish more public garden spaces seeking to inject some new design would look to things like Chaumont.

    Reply
  5. Tom Turner Post author

    I went to the Chelsea Flower Show today and, though it certainly champions design, it also seemed a little more like a trade show than it has in pre-recession times.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Tom Turner Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *