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Les Jardins d’Etretat in France by IL NATURE

Project name:
Les Jardins d’Etretat
Landscape Architecture:
IL NATURE
Location:
Avenue Damilaville, 76790 Étretat, France
Photography:
Matteo Carrasale, Richard Bloom
Design team:
Alexandre Grivko, Natalia Bogomolova, Vera Kalashnik, Valeriya Kanavin, Alina Trunova, Inna Korneeva, Elena Popova, Marcel Gherghelejiu
Collaborators:
N/A
Area:
1.5 hectares
Design year:
2015
Completion year:
2017
Client:
N/A
Typology:
Landscape, Public Garden

The London-based Landscape architecture firm IL NATURE led by Alexandre Grivko has revived the historic garden of Les Jardins d’Etretat in France that is inspired by Claude Monet’s atmospheric paintings of the arches and cliffs.

Landscape architect's statement: Inspired by the impressionist and enthusiastic gardener Claude Monet, the garden was originally created for the famous French actress Madame Thébault, with the first tree planted in 1903. Monet had determined the general mood of the garden, which has been carefully preserved to this day. The main terrace of Les Jardins d’Étretat sits on the renowned cliff d’Amont, where the artist used to spend many hours on his canvases – a series of paintings and sketches known as ‘Les Falaises d’Étretat’.

old cottage house on a hill surrounded with green garden

In 2015, Alexandre Grivko and his talented team of architects recreated the historical landscape. Les Jardins d’Étretat expanded their borders, hosted new objets d’art and were given new life. The value of this project lies in the unification of historical elements of the Villa Roxelana garden and modern ideas – the result is a fully-fledged architectural object ripe with neo-futuristic vision.

sun rays seen through tree leaves

Les Jardins d’Étretat is an experimental artistic laboratory which primarily seeks to identify new plant care technology and new forms of trimmed compositions for spatial planning. Large-scale trimmed plants provide the material for the garden’s neo-futuristic compositions and images: the eternal organism of the ocean with its own dynamic, spirals and whirlpools; troubled waves; and the cliffs and arches of Normandy’s alabaster coast. Les Jardins d’Étretat not only draw attention to the biodiversity and natural beauty of the ecosystem, but also demonstrate new architectural methods in the art of landscaping.

head sculptures installed in the garden

The garden also forms a modern art museum under the open sky of Normandy. The museum has main and temporary exhibitions. The main modern sculpture exhibition forms an indivisible architectural base, without which, the meaning, drama, general mood and artistic integrity would be lost. This exhibition emphasises the striking individuality of Les Jardins d’Étretat in the world of landscaping art.

head shaped sculptures at Les Jardins d’Etretat

sculptured head in garden

public garden with green plants

garden design

public garden with flowers and trees

curvy way to the clifftop of garden

stairs made with black bricks

natural wooden benches in the park

flower blossoming

garden hedge shears

garden lush

garden path

garden with sea view

green garden

garden stairs

garden bench

head sculpture in garden

key inside tree

staircase to heaven

garden bushes

site plan

site plan with colored drawing

landscape architecture plan

3d model plan


By Naser Nader Ibrahim

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