Grand-Métis, Canada, 2016-11-08 - 

Experimenting Landscapes: Testing the Limits of the Garden focuses on the Métis International Garden Festival in Québec, Canada, which has presented more than 150 temporary gardens at the cutting edge of garden design and environmental art since 2000. Despite its remote location, the Festival has attracted more than 1 million visitors to experience the work of both emerging design practices and renowned designers such as Diana Balmori, Claude Cormier, Ken Smith, Snøhetta, Topotek 1 and Michael Van Valkenburgh.

 

Contemporary garden festivals provide a laboratory for landscape designers to experiment with materials, methods, and design concepts that can potentially be adapted to their larger urban works. This book features a selection of 25 projects as well as essays by landscape critic Tim Richardson, landscape architect Marc Hallé and reflections from festival designers that explore how the garden can challenge our assumptions, provide new meanings, and change how we see even the most familiar things. It is essential reading for anyone practicing in the field of landscape, installation art or in place-making in urban and rural environments.

 

Experimenting Landscapes: Testing the Limits of the Garden is available from Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens and from better bookstores everywhere. It will be available for special launch price of $60 CAN ($50 each for 2 copies or more).

 

The book will be launched at Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens in the ERE 132 Eco Home on November 10 and in venues in Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City and Toronto.

 

This publication is made possible with the financial support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation.

  

About the Author

Emily Waugh is principal of Survey Studio, a multidisciplinary practice focused on design communication through research, writing, exhibition design, publications, and graphic narratives. Emily has lectured in landscape architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Recent publications include: Recycling Spaces: The Work of Martha Schwartz Partners (2011); Editor, Harvard Design Magazine no 36. Landscape Architecture’s Core (2013); Editor, GSD Platform 3 (2010); and Visionary Cities with Winy Maas and Alexander Sverdlov (2010).

 

About Birkhäuser

Based in Basel, Switzerland, Birkhäuser is an international publisher for architecture, landscaping, and design. This is the first book in the extensive list of publications on architecture and landscape to present conceptual gardens and the phenomenon of garden festivals.

 

About the International Garden Festival

The International Garden Festival is recognized as one of the most important events of its kind in North America and one of the leading annual garden festivals in the world. This artistic and tourism event also gives visitors a chance to discover inspiring spaces bringing together the visual arts, architecture, design, landscape and the environment. The Festival recently launched the competition for the 18^th edition of the Festival that will open on June 23, 2017. The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 14, 2016 at 5 pm EST. For complete information on this call for proposals, those interested should consult the web site: www.projects.internationalgardenfestival.ca

 

About Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens

Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens are located on the shores of the St. Lawrence and Mitis rivers in Québec, Canada. Created from 1926 to 1958 by avid gardener and plant collector, Elsie Reford, the gardens are a national historic site. The gardens and heritage buildings were designated by the government of Québec in 2013. Les Jardins de Métis are considered one of the premier gardens in North America and an obligatory stop for all those visiting eastern Québec. Hydro-Québec has been a major partner of the Reford Gardens since 1999. Visit www.refordgardens.com for more details.