Winners 2006 - First Prize

Garden Domain in Miniature

The plot for this garden in Paris's fourteenth arrondissement, shaded by six- and seven-storey structures, comprises only twenty square metres. An artist and an architect transformed this garden – previously an eyesore – in front of their flat into a small garden realm in which they can observe natural processes.

Three raised beds edged with CORTEN©-steel form the spatial framework. Two steel-frame benches with removable chestnut planks link the beds of roses and climbing roses, box-tree, cranesbills, hortensias, wild strawberries, baby's tears, hellebore, bear's breeches, bracken and bellflowers.

The special elements which were introduced include small water tables, so-called capteurs, as well as window and mirror gardens. The capteurs, made in varying sizes of bronze or rusted steel and supported by slender legs, are distributed within the garden and are intended to assist in heightening the perception of rain, wind, light and sky. When the rainwater evaporates, the owners refill the capteurs.

The mirror garden consists of zinc planters, attached to the house walls; they bring more light into the shady courtyard and open up new sight-lines. The window gardens, also made of zinc, can be hung from a sill, placed on the ground, or integrated in the bench's steel frame.