13. Comme un bruissement d’ailes…

In the midst of the synaesthetic experience, visitors are confronted with the notion of time, connected to the past with the child in them, looking to the future, their head in the clouds, constantly bounced from one time dimension to the next with each new sensation that beckons.

Comme un bruissement d’ailes… (Like a rustling of wings…) is the garden in which this feather-light travel experience takes place through time and space, inspired by an array of sensations and playing out like breathing out and breathing in: visitors start by embarking mysteriously along a circular wall, a vast translucent white screen as if it were a cell membrane animated by shadows projected from the heart of the garden.

Guided by the outline of the concentric alleyways, we discover treasures of smells and contrasts arranged like the motifs of two interlacing mandalas. Through the circular movement pattern we are offered a multitude of viewpoints, a link with the dancing light… In the middle of the mandalas, a swing showcases humans in the uniqueness of their being. The setting of these two swings poetically and pleasurably conjures up the rustling wings of the butterflies we are. In the movement of a swing, taken back to their childhood, visitors flit from a place of shadow (flying over a brightly coloured dense vegetation) to one of light (white veil billowed by a coloured, perfumed mist – a fleeting moment of freshness); experience acceleration and the suspended moment, the “still point” as if surfing, frozen in the movement of an ocean’s wave, and with their feet they can brush the grass they soar over… Cut off from the ground, we are transformed into dazzled watchers of gardens… For those brave enough, twist the swing ropes and feel the whirling and twirling of life – the garden becomes a kaleidoscope…

Frédéric POTDEVIN, DPLG (French government qualified) architect, Gaëlle LIRAUD, student in urban planning at the ENSAN, a landscape engineer, TRYEAU Architecture -Emmanuel HOCHART, DPLG architect-, Michel-Marie BOUGARD, illustrator, Evelyne PONTOIZEAU, web designer, Nathalie WELFERT, lecturing architect at the ENSAN, Noémie BUREL, landscape engineer and Marie-Christine DESMARS, DPLG architect

 

“As I considered that architecture should be apprehended from a whole range of angles, my initial approach to my chosen field was from a “sociological” viewpoint, focusing on what a project might involve in terms of use and appropriation of space, before going on to complement this approach by spending time in a computer graphics studio where I was able to focus on the “aesthetic” side of the discipline – in particular because proficiency in the use of digital tools enables early study of interior and exterior ambiences. Following this experience, I took a job with an agency, where I had a close-up view of the way in which projects are implemented, from building permit to construction site. Finally, I set up my own agency so that what I had acquired could be put at the service of a personal sensibility, very much aware that these days one cannot design architecture without taking its environmental impact into full consideration.”

 

After training at the Nantes School of Architecture from 1978 to 1985, Michel-Marie Bougard turned to a career as a freelance illustrator (for children’s books and newspapers, local authorities, public bodies, etc.). In parallel, he designs (with considerable economy of form, materials and technical solutions) prototype kites which he is regularly invited to fly at exhibitions of international standing. Over the last few years, and in very much the same spirit, he has also been working on mobiles, paper-folding and pop-ups. Using the line as a starting-point, worked upon in its very purest expression, is synonymous with lightness of touch and dynamism – with determination that brings out the essential. In short, that is his way of celebrating desire, life and desire for life – an artistic approach that has also led him to collaborate with a Nantes landscaping agency over the last ten or so years.

Evelyne Pontoizeau is a visual artist and computer graphics artist who teaches at the Nantes School of Architecture and at the “Cinécréatis” film school (also in Nantes). A graduate of the School of Fine Arts, specialising in (multimedia) communication, she has a true passion for gardens, as an art form and a philosophy, liking to define them as living pictures. The International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire will give her an opportunity to enjoy combining her taste for graphics with her love of plants.

Emmanuel Hochart is an architect. In 2007, after working in Paris for 23 years, he set up his own agency, TRYEAU, in Nantes. Having always been interested in promotion of a humanist and holistic ecology, he was originally very much involved in the wood sector, pioneering the HEQ initiative and going on to develop a Sustainable Development approach. Well aware of the problems and limits inherent in the systems currently employed in a dehumanised society strongly impacted by the supremacy of economic factors, he is active in projects that make direct use of local resources (collective intelligence, participation, renewable natural resources, reuse, etc.). His participation in the International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire is motivated by the spontaneous approach of voluntary co-construction it provides for, with all the multidisciplinarity involved in true project management.

Marie-Christine Desmars collaborates with landscape architect Gilles Garos as co-contractor in the fields of landscaping and operational urban planning. Projects include creation of the Le Cellier (44) cemetery and building (studies underway), development of the leisure activities area in the grounds of Château de la Limouzinière (44) (studies underway), urban study and creation of the Saint Perreux (56) cemetery and building (delivered in 2011), and creation of the Saint Vincent sur Jard (85) cemetery and ceremonial building (under construction). She has collaborated regularly with the GPAA agency (Gaëlle Peneau Architecte Associés, Nantes) in the hospital sector, including as project leader in 2010/2011 for the APD competition for restructuring the Hôtel Dieu Nord building at Angers’ UHC (13,000 m²) (subcontracting mission). Since 2000, she has been teaching the use of digital tools for representation at the Higher School of Architecture in Nantes (under contract since 2009).

Gaëlle Liraud is a landscape engineer who graduated from the National Institute of Horticulture and Landscaping (AGROCAMPUS OUEST Angers) in September 2012 and is currently studying for a 2nd-year Masters in Towns and Territories: town-planning policies and practices – a programme co-accredited by the Nantes Faculty of Law and School of Architecture. She hopes to go on to work in an engineering office managing development projects that combine architecture, urban planning and landscaping. Her love of plants and need to constantly create motivated her participation, so as to share her skills with a multidisciplinary team of professionals in the creation of a garden for the Chaumont-sur-Loire International Garden Festival.

Noémie Burel is a landscape engineer and graduate of the National Institute of Horticulture and Landscaping (Agrocampus Ouest – Angers Centre). Upon completion of her studies, she set up the landscaping project management agency BE-PAYSAGE in Angers. Convinced that landscaping contributes greatly to the day-to-day wellbeing of all citizens, she pursues this objective through projects mostly undertaken on behalf of private individuals. Her motto: “Spaces filled with life and poetry for one and all”.

With a true passion for expressing architectural ideas through the use of digital tools, a subject that she teaches at the Nantes School of Architecture, Nathalie Welfert loves working as part of a team and the confrontation of approaches involved. Consequently, the Chaumont-sur-Loire International Garden Festival, which combines landscaping, architecture, environment and art, provides an ideal opportunity for her to seek to harmonise a range of artistic sensibilities.