Gilles Clément

gardener, landscaper, botanist, biologist and writer

Theory Of Landscape Architecture

Sharon Cynthia V
 BIOGRAPHY
• Gilles Clement is a renowned French gardener, botanist etymologist and
landscape designer who has developed a new approach to the art of garden
design.
• He designs gardens that reflect the dynamics and biological diversity of
plants and their perpetual evolution in space and in time.
• In the early 1970s, having just graduated with degrees in both agronomy
and landscape design, he was already defending “biological gardening,” an
early version of today’s “work with, not against nature” theme.
• In 1986 he intervened at the André-Citroen park. Its inauguration in 1992
made it famous which made him a landscaper recognized by the general
public.
• In 1998 he received the Grand Prix du Paysage.
• French national Award winner for national architecture in 1999.
• Then in 2012 he became holder of the annual Chair of Artistic Creation at the
Collège de France. LILA 2022 Honour Award Winner
 THE CONCEPTS
Gilles Clément is the author of several concepts which have left their mark on
those involved in the landscape. His ideas stem from the observation that a
natural landscape is never fixed, that species and genes must circulate.

• Garden in Motion focuses on working with natural processes in the

landscape. How to accept and embrace the natural succession of a garden,
how to work with natural processes, rather than against them. (La Vallée,
France)
• Planetary Garden is essentially an ode to (bio)diversity in light of
globalization. It deals with complexities that contribute to it or work against it
while calling for comprehensive holistic, integrated design attitudes. (The
Gardens of the Musée du Quai Branly,Paris)
• Third Landscape addresses the ecological importance of small, yet
essential left-over, untamed or abandoned spaces. It proposes a radical
statement that projects should include ‘free’ spaces, where biodiversity is able
to evolve on its own, in its own time. (le jardin du tiers paysage, France)
WORKS
• La vallée, France
• André-Citroën Park , Paris
• Jardins de l'Arche in Paris la Défense,
• Matisse Park in Euralille
• Henri Matisse Park, Lille, France
• Garden of the Château de Blois
• Garden of the domaine du Rayol
• Jardin du Foyer Laekenois, France
• Garden of the Quai Branly museum in Paris
• Garden of the École normale supérieure de Lyon
• Garden of the Château de Châtenay-en-France
• Garden of the Château de Beauregard, Loire Valley
• Roof of the Saint Nazaire submarine base, France
 LE JARDIN EN MOUVEMENT
LA VALLÉE, France
• Natural Evolution from Abandoned Farmland: Clément allows
abandoned farmland to evolve into forest growth through natural
processes.
• Gardener's Intervention: Clément believes the gardener's intervention is
not just acceptable but essential in the process.
• Guiding Spontaneous Growth: The gardener guides spontaneous growth
when all garden elements (trees, shrubs, vines, bulbs, grasses) are present.
• Chemical-Free Approach: Clément avoids chemicals, supplemental
watering, and energy-wasting machinery.
• Pruning Techniques: Pruning includes shaping self-sown willows, wild
hornbeams, and creating meandering paths through smokebush.
• Minimal Infrastructure: Paths are often mown grass, changing yearly to
preserve self-sown clumps of various plants, attracting diverse insects.
• Philosophy of Gardens: Clément emphasizes that while gardens are
artificial, home gardens can function as wildlife preserves.
• Movement and Sensory Experience: Movement in the garden involves
seasonal variation, self-sowing, and species migration, offering a tactile
and sensory experience.
• Philosophical Quote: "A garden is always artificial, but home gardens can
become wildlife preserves," asserts Clément.

LA VALLÉE, France
• The source of inspiration for the « Garden in Motion » is
neglected land: a parcel of land left.
• On such pieces of land , the existing sources of energy -
growth, struggle, shifting, exchange - do not encounter
the obstacles usually set up to oblige nature to yield to
geometry, to tidiness, or any other cultural principles.
• As with all species that sustain life - plants, animals,
humans - the Garden in Motion is subject to the
evolutionary process resulting from long term
interaction. Which balances light ,shadow and spacing
adjustment among the species present, with, as an
objective, to maintain and increase biological diversity,
a source of wonder, a guarantee for the future. the
Garden in Motion recommends maintaining those
species that decide where they wish to grow.
LE JARDIN EN MOUVEMENT
garden in movement is a type of landscape that has a
life of its own and is dynamic.
In it, plants find a natural relationship with their
surroundings and develop as freely as possible.
In contrast, conventional landscape design is carried out
artificially, for example by using computers to create fixed
gardens. They are oblivious to the relationships between
plants and their natural growth, they establish alignments,
proportions and marked boundaries. In contrast, the
garden in movement is one thing today and in a year’s
time it will be completely different.
From Clément’s point of view, landscape design is only a
starting point, and its intervention in the natural surroundings
must be minimal. In any case, landscaping intervention will be
only that which is necessary to prevent the landscape from
becoming a wilderness, which cannot be enjoyed by visitors.
PARC ANDRÉ CITROËN, Paris LE JARDIN EN MOUVEMENT

Parc André Citroën, Paris

Gilles Clément explained the design as having four

themes (artifice, architecture, movement and nature)
with an overall transition from urban to rural.

The use of water and clipped plants carry a distant echo

of the French Baroque.
A White Garden and a Black Garden are set into the
urban fabric and lead on to the park's central feature - a
vast rectangular lawn sliced through by a diagonal path
PARC ANDRÉ CITROËN, Paris
The design includes a Moving Garden
where the staff decide how the paths
will be mown from year to year, to
accommodate self-sown plants.
LE JARDIN EN MOUVEMENT
• Garden in Motion is Clément’s belief in combining the energy
(movement) of a place with his design visions, creating a fluid interplay
between moving organic matter and static constructions.
• Clément states ‘In practice, the gardeners of these landscapes must
actively maintain movement, aiding nature rather than enacting rigid
plans.’
• Clément’s design approach exerts a depth consideration for biology and
the complexity, characteristics, spatial demands and nourishment needs
of the plants already existing or to be introduced into the gardens.
• This is not a plan in order to dictate a final result or image of the
garden but rather as a complementary structure in order to
‘systematically maintain the garden’s growth.
 THE THIRD LANDSCAPE
• Clément uses the term to classify wastelands such as former industrial areas or nature reserves that are prime locations for
accumulating bio-diversity. It designates the sum of the space left over by man to landscape evolution - to nature alone.
Included in this category are left behind (délaissé) urban or rural sites, transitional spaces, neglected land (friches), swamps,
moors, peat bogs, but also roadsides, shores, railroad embankments, etc.

• The Third Landscape is an undetermined fragment of the Planetary Garden

• The Third Landscape is of interest to the planning professionals, the designer, led to include in his project an unorganized
space or to designate as public amenity unattended areas created, voluntarily or not, by all land use.

• These landscapes are places of indecision where we can witness the relationship between the city and spontaneous
biodiversity, bringing an ecological value to these otherwise neglected and discarded areas.
SAINT-NAZAIRE SUBMARINE BASE , FRANCE THE THIRD LANDSCAPE

The Third Landscape garden proposed for the Roof of the

Saint Nazaire submarine base is composed of species
belonging to the Third Landscape of the Estuary and, in
part, of convergent species compatible with the climate
and the absence of floor of the base. It is divided into three
parts:

• The Garden of Aspens,

• The Garden of Stonecrops and Horsetails et
• The Garden of Labels
form a triptych (3 gardens) for the work Le Jardin du Tiers Paysage

Accessible to the public since 1998 thanks to the project of town planner Manuel de Sola Morales, the
roof of the submarine base is an open-air terrace between the city and the port basin.
SAINT-NAZAIRE SUBMARINE BASE , FRANCE THE THIRD LANDSCAPE

The Garden of Stonecrops and Horsetails

The Garden of Labels

The Garden of Aspens,
SAINT-NAZAIRE SUBMARINE BASE , FRANCE THE THIRD LANDSCAPE
The Garden of Aspens,
the roof of the former submarine base is now an open terrace
between the city and the harbour basin.

Clement views the submarine base as “a place of resistance” that

can accommodate the ecological diversity of the estuary and he set
out to develop the site over a 3-year period 2009-2012.

In 2009, 107 aspens were planted in the former explosion chambers

at the base, so when fully grown they would appear to make the
base tremble and shimmer which was Clément’s first poetic
intention.
SAINT-NAZAIRE SUBMARINE BASE , FRANCE THE THIRD LANDSCAPE

The Garden of Labels

In The Garden of Labels, the former submarine pit, Clément added a

thin layer of bedrock onto which the wind, birds, and the soles of
visitors shoes will deposit seeds as they pass through.

The proposal with this project, as with all the projects commissioned
for Estuaire is for a continual and ongoing maintenance programme
which embeds the work further in the local landscape. Twice a year,
new plants will be identified planted and labelled.
SAINT-NAZAIRE SUBMARINE BASE , FRANCE THE THIRD LANDSCAPE
The Garden of Stonecrops and Horsetails

Le Jardin des Orpins et des Graminées was

crossed by a canal planted with
horsetails. It can be seen from a footbridge
offering a unique viewpoint over the entire
base. Stonecrops and grasses, robust
plants emblematic of the estuary, bring
plant life to this mineral environment.

In the pit, for Le Jardin des Étiquettes ,

Gilles Clément installs a thin layer of
substrate. For the wind, for the birds, for
our soles to deposit seeds there. Twice a
year, new plants will be identified and
carefully labeled.
To complete the triptych, a map
shows us the third-landscape
areas of the estuary. Witness to an
ecological wealth identified at a
given moment, it nourishes the
hope of its future expansion.
References

https://www.kcmind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Gilles-Cle%CC%81ment-
presentation.pdf
https://www.coloco.org/projets/jardins-du-tiers-paysage/
https://www.area-arch.it/en/jardins-du-tiers-paysage/
https://the-green-cloud.blogspot.com/2015/10/gardens-of-resistance.html
http://www.ilparcocentralediprato.it/en/jakob-macfarlane-gilles-clement-and-coloco-
the-staircase-garden-bruxelles-belgium-2007-2008-2/
https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/in-practice/in-practice-gilles-clement-
on-the-planetary-garden
https://pure.tudelft.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/86429227/5478_133_16361_4_10_2020
1220.pdf
https://landezine-award.com/gilles-clement/
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https://www.iaacblog.com/programs/the_eden_project_a_garden_in_movement/
https://www.gardendesign.com/designers/gilles-clement.html
https://amusementlogic.com/general-news/landscape-according-to-gilles-clement/
https://www.iaacblog.com/programs/the_eden_project_a_garden_in_movement/