From “Eau Blanche” to Darwin

After renovating their house, our clients wanted to enjoy a beautiful garden and give their little boy a safe place to play.

Their request:

• Entertain friends or family outdoors, thanks to a new terrace
• Enjoy a place for rest and daydreaming, to relax
• Improve access to the house, making it smoother and more natural
• Make access to the garden from the street safe for their little boy
• Be able to park two cars without seeing them from the garden
• Screen the house from the driveways of the neighboring properties

Our proposal:

Create a place where eras meet

First, an era rooted in the history of the place. We drew inspiration from the nearby river, the Eau Blanche, and its landscapes to give the garden design a soft, winding character.

Then a more contemporary era of the region: the DARWIN ecosystem, an alternative venue housing offices, shops and meeting places in a former industrial wasteland, influenced how we organized the space into rooms, lines and grids.

Create a dialogue between the garden and the house

• Echo the interior decoration outdoors, especially in the woodwork
• Contrast colors and atmospheres between the façade and the garden
• Use a limited palette of plant colors
• Create pleasant, varied views from the house onto the garden, and from the entrance onto the plot
• Give the majestic staircase of the west façade a central place again

Use the rooms to handle uses and constraints

The garden rooms make space for the different uses, taking into account their location and the path of the sun.

Keep a common thread

Like the Eau Blanche guiding the discovery of the landscape, a path takes shape through the garden. It is marked out by colors, structuring plants and objects.