Garden Captured sensation, France

The eighteen century was characterized by many expeditions to the new world, to collect new tropical species, exotic animals and any kind of extravagant pieces of nature. Each wealthy citizen of the ancient world was wishing to show a rarity from the “New world” in their garden or living room. Nowadays we all know it. You go on vacation and fall under the spell of the beauty of the nature like butterflies as big as a bird or rare exotic flowers. We like to catch this sensation and take it home. Home it is a motionless odorless silent reminder in the decor of our living environment. You do not even have to travel today. The hummingbirds, king-size butterflies are constantly sold as a curiosity for the living room. We give the captured nature a place, just as we consume the tigers on National Geographic. This garden distinguishes from other traditional gardens in its expression. The black living room absorbs the incentives to conduct sensation. The concept of this garden is based on a colorless field with a colorful midpoint. The garden consists out of a field of black plants and flowers. All colors have vanished in the garden. In the center of the garden an object arises veiled in a black curtain. Once inside, the visitor is surrounded by a cascade of colorful objects within glass cloches. The twittering exotic birds or the velvet texture of a scented flower petal is a captured sensation. Contrast with the outside black garden strengthens the experience of the colorful sensation inside the pavilion.

location: Chaumont-sur-Loire, France

year of design: 2012