My clients wanted to transform a very small strip of recently acquired land into a garden to relax in. Once again we were confronted with very strong restrictions, this time linked to the immediate proximity of a classified historic monument set in a beautiful green setting.

The entire design was based on two key principles: creating a hidden garden and taking advantage of the neighboring semi-public garden by adopting the Japanese principle of borrowed landscape. I therefore took the plant vocabulary of the garden surrounding the monument and densified it to give a lush appearance to the intimate space created for my clients. The boundary between their garden and the rarely frequented public space is so barely visible that they have the impression of being in a garden much larger than their actual property.