The owner asked me to tame the slope of his land to install a south-facing swimming pool. He also wanted to create a simple, maintenance-free entrance. All within very tight deadlines.

The design proposes to play through the plant palettes on the north-south opposition created by the screen of the house. The quintessential Basque Country plants—Camellia, Hydrangea, Nandina and Vinca—are contrasted with a Mediterranean palette (Nerium, Gaura, Lantana, Romneya Coulteri, Tulbaghia and Erigeron karvinskianus) around the pool.

The gigantic soil remodeling to reduce a slope of nearly 60% required sacrificing wild flora and woodland that the town hall required us to recreate. (Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus excelsior and Rhamnus frangula).