Since its inception in 2000, the International Garden Festival has united landscape designers around the world in a singular mission: bringing outstanding green spaces to the Reford Gardens in Quebec. And this year is no exception. Now in its 24th cycle, the festival garnered more than 130 submissions from entrants in 32 countries, each vying for a chance to be included in an exhibition that last year attracted nearly 60,000 spectators. "This year, Ève De Garie-Lamanque, the event’s artistic director, invited designers to imagine a present and a future that is ecologically, economically, and culturally responsible by drawing on the teachings of past generations," according to a festival press release.
Selected by a panel of jurors—which also awarded special mentions to two designs (not pictured)—here are the five projects that made the cut.
Le Jardin des Quatre Colonnes, by Vincent Dumay and Baptiste Wullschleger
Adobe construction takes top billing in this project from Vincent Dumay and Baptiste Wullschleger. "The fluted boles are built using a tubular casing which gives them their specific shape evoking Doric columns," according to the release.
Maillage, by Frédérique Allard, Jean-Jacques Yervant, and Aliénor de Montalivet
In Maillage, designers explore the intersection of plants and textiles. "The dyeing properties of plants are known since antiquity, and their use as a coloring agent for plant and animal fibers represents a millennium-old know-how," the release states.
Matière-Matière, by Marie-Pier Caron-Desrochers and Tristan Morissette (of Studio Haricot) with Rose-Marie Guévin and Vincent Ouellet
A hemp-concrete structure is the focal point of Matière-Matière, which the designers describe as "an invitation to feel one’s way through a materiality stripped bare," per the release.
Racines de mer, by Cassandra Ducharme-Martin and Gabriel Demeule
This project from Cassandra Ducharme-Martin and Gabriel Demeule features a wooden frame with an algae roof, a play on the hardy eelgrass once used for roofing on the island of Læsø in Denmark.
S’y Retrouver, by Jinny Yu, Ki Jun Kim, and Frédéric Pitre
Dreamed up by designers from Germany and Canada, this white clover-dotted, labyrinth-like space will evoke "the pattern of the roots of two trees linked by fungal mycelium," according to the release.
