2004 bis 2006

The garden of this neo-classical villa, built in 1924, was to be designed as a prestigious open space in such a way that it could be used as a spatial extension of the house. A whole new venue for celebrations and prestigious functions has been reinvented here: Within the plot’s spatial framing consisting of surrounding hedges, classical elements of garden design are put together to form an impressive, harmonious whole by virtue of stepped hedges. The topography and a water staircase with differently tuned water arcades mark a central focus. Three horizontally staggered entrys of clipped hedges: boxwood, yew, and beech create with their different greens a wall, with a lush stock of old trees rising behind them outside of the garden, just as in a bosquet. Thus a plain, orderly framework tames “wilderness”. The staggered hedges, the sloping lawn and the black water staircase produce an alienation of the perspective and intensify the visual depth of space. A sofa-shaped ivy sculpture placed behind the water staircase in its axis oscillates between alienation and satire. “Nature” appears in the form of explicit cultivation, in a symmetric, “tamed” shape creating an architectural green space. It is even “furnished” with an element of interior design, a sofa. On the other hand, the generous void of the garden with its reduced formal language counterbalances the building’s compactness and architectural presence.