01. Le laboratoire

Philippe Guillemet came face to face with the art of drawing at a very early age, and was initiated into fresco painting and stained-glass window making before he attended the École des Beaux-Arts [Fine Arts School], where he encountered sculpture and bronze techniques. From then on, he has worked as a sculptor and taught Visual Arts and Art History at the École Spéciale d'Architecture [Special Architecture School] in Paris. He is a passionate and open-minded artist, whose areas of work are not limited to pure research, but engage in a constant dialogue with architecture, landscape, furniture and, more recently, lute making… His wide-ranging work, which is most often figurative, finds its expression in aphorisms whose concision and underlying irony invite onlookers to reflect. Apart from galleries and fairs where he occasionally exhibits, public commissions and various private and/or media initiatives form the main focus of what he does. In keeping with this, he is also the creator of the trophy for “Les Victoires de la Musique” [a televised music competition].

Meryl Fanien very quickly became interested in professions to do with nature and headed for an agricultural high school where she did an ‘STAE Aménagement’ baccalaureate [a qualification focusing on the science of agronomy, the environment and development]. She was already attracted by landscape, but nevertheless decided to move in the direction of a BTS Technico Commercial [advanced technical and commercial vocational qualification] in ornamental plants, in order to perfect her knowledge of the plant world. She went on to do a degree in Management of a Horticultural and Landscape Company, and then spent time at a nursery to complete her horticultural education. Training in both computer assisted design and drawing enabled her to join a Parisian landscape agency and find out all about public commissions. She has now returned to Brittany and the St Malo area, where she has created her design office “L’idée verte”, enabling her to express her creativity by working on behalf of both landscape architects and private individuals and to follow her projects through from the draft outline to planting.

Cyrille Parlot has been a landscape architect for ten or so years. After following a university course in Physics and Chemistry, he moved in the direction of the landscape professions, doing a B.T.S.A. [advanced technical agricultural qualification] in “Landscaping” as a sandwich course and then did training in CAD. After various experiences in landscaping companies, he became Production Manager in green spaces. Today, he is the director of a landscaping company: “Les Jardins du Mesnil” located in Plerguer (35). He encourages ecological methods for looking after gardens and offers innovative concepts.