18. LE JARDIN DES ÉMERGENCES

DESIGNERS

David Simonson grew up in San Diego, in Southern California's chaparral coastal region. His sense of affinity with these characteristic landscapes motivated him to take up landscape architecture studies at California Polytechnic State University. He has lived in Paris since 2009 and developed his love of plants as a gardener. He has deepened his knowledge of landscape architecture through a two-year course at Versailles National School of Architecture. His perception of the garden in the landscape factors in the "genius loci". By combining ecology, occupants and architecture, each garden design is a unique proposal. David Simonson designs timeless, sensitive spaces that encourage us to connect and interact with nature. Gentle intervention without making any major alterations creates spaces you feel have always existed, which pique your curiosity and are conducive to contemplation and reflection.

Pierre Lavaud's gardens are the fruit of his sensitivity and close affinity with nature. His conceptual method draws on his empathy for living organisms, his understanding of ecology and taste for culture. After a childhood spent partly in the great outdoors, on a farm in the Prealps mid mountains, he graduated from a prestigious business school and took his first professional steps as a business founder in investment consulting and events. A few years in, he reviewed his values and priorities, henceforth giving precedence to the art of living, well-being and harmony. The importance of nature became clear to Pierre through these convictions, and he decided to enrol in Versailles School of Landscape. His meeting with Gilles Clément would be decisive and reinforce his intuitions. Since then, he has been designing and laying out gardens where life takes pride of place: careful attention is paid to the role we play in our surroundings and to our relationship with nature.