Designed with the Conservatoire National des Plantes à parfums, Médicinales, Aromatiques et Industrielles [National Conservatory of Scented, Medicinal, Aromatic and Industrial Plants] in Milly-La Forêt, this garden takes the walker off on an olfactory and didactic journey to learn how to recognise plants and to find out about their medicinal and aromatic virtues.
It brings together a range of plants from a dry environment of a Mediterranean type. It is a sustainable garden and will have minimum watering to supplement the seasonal rains.
DESIGNERS
Guylaine PIKETTY, park and garden designer, and Sylvie POLO, designer
FRANCE
Guylaine Leverne Piketty is a landscape architect who did her training at the “National Higher Institute for Landscape in Versailles, studying for a “DSAA” [Higher Diploma in Applied Arts], and the Olivier de Serres National Higher Institute for Applied Arts and Artistic Trades.
“As the granddaughter of a horticulturist and the daughter of landscape architects, landscapes and gardens are part of my heritage and my history. After training in interior architecture and also at the Landscape Institute in Versailles, garden design became second nature to me. At the point of landscape diagnosis, when I am finding out about a site, I am sensitive and attentive to all the questions that my designs raise, diversity of plant forms, recognition of landscape units. Observation is the starting point for the project, it contributes to educating the way I look at things and enables me to make the gardener’s gestures my own. “Atelier paysage” is a design office that supports projects for private contracting groups, responds to competitive tenders, makes inventories and draws up management plans for landscape grounds. As a partner in implementation and maintenance, it takes charge of monitoring work sites and training on ecological methods for garden care with a responsible approach, especially water management and soil protection. The cultural, social and human dimensions go right to the heart of the project and give meaning to my work, so that I can respond to contemporary expectations and create gardens for well-being, health and sharing”.
Sylvie Polo is a designer who graduated from the Olivier de Serres National Higher Institute for Applied Arts and Artistic Trades.
“As a creator of bottles and packaging for the major perfumers and being integrated into their artistic managements, I have been able to see projects through to a successful conclusion, from design to production, from bottle making to press launch events. With a wealth of experience working with several major luxury brands, I pay very special attention to graphic design, aesthetics and refinement. This path enables me to understand the relationship between objects and space and their use in different environments: juxtaposition of formal and graphic creation, highlighting visual identity, brand identity and logos. Colour has always been part of my universe; the materials and feelings that are associated with them are essential as my main inspirations in my work as a designer. As cofounder of the Centro Polo design agency in 1995, and based in the centre of the exceptional environment of the Bray Area, my work also quite naturally has an orientation towards the management of spaces and gardens, along with their conservation and restoration”.
