Gilles Clément

Untypical character amongst the french landscape designers, Gilles Clément, since he finished the Ecole du paysage of Versailles in 1969, turned his back to the green space designers who were popular then. With a solid scientific background – he is also an agricultural engineer – he started working on the elaboration of private gardens, a very unpopular theme in the 1970s.

Given that gardens have always delivered a vision of the universe, Gilles Clément started rethinking it all from scratch, starting with current knowledge – especially biology –instead of nostalgia or aesthetics. He creates a new notion: that of garden in movement, which he tested in the Creuse and brilliantly presented in Paris at the Citroën park, where he worked with the architect Patrick Berger and the Viguier-Jodry-Provost team.

If today his talents are more and more called upon, it is because his vision deeply modifies the rules of gardens and landscapes. He has intervened in Blois, Lille, la Défense, Châteauvallon, Lausanne and Soweto.

The planning of the Rayol domain, in the Var, led him to study in detail the various Mediterranean ecosystems of the planet. A gardener and traveller, he is also a recognised pedagogue. He teaches at the Ecole d’Architecture of Versailles and at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Paysage.

Based on E. de Roux, Le Monde, 10/12/96.



Selected bibliography :

• Les Jardins du Rayol, illustrations de Dominique Mansion, Editions Actes Sud, 2000
• Le Jardin Planétair, exposition Parc de la Villette, Paris : Albin Michel, 1999
• Les portes, Paris : Editions Sens et Tonka, 1998
• Le Jardin planétaire, en collaboration avec Claude Eveno (colloque de Châteauvallon), Paris : Edition de l'Aube, 1997
• Les Libres Jardins de Gilles Clément, Paris : Editions du Chêne, 1997
• Traité succinct de l'art volontaire, Paris : Editions Sens et Tonka, Paris, 1997
• Une école buissonnière, exposition Espace Electra, Paris : Editions F.Hazan, 1997
• Thomas et le Voyageur : Esquisse du jardin planétaire, Paris : Editions Albin Michel,1997
• Le Jardin romantique de Georges Sand, en collaboration avec Christiane Sand, Paris : Editions Albin Michel, 1995
• Contributions à l'étude du Jardin planétaire, en collaboration avec Michel Blazy, Valence : Editions Erba, 1995
• Eloge de la Friche, avec huit pointes sèches de François Béalu, Paris : Editions Lacourière et Frélaut, 1994