Floating Island Garden – Remnant

This commission for an island garden in the French city of Amiens was for the annual Arts, Ville & Paysage festival. This festival is located on the network of islands in the centre of Amiens near to the Gothic Cathedral and our garden covers one island called l’ile aux Fagots.

Amiens’ history is influenced by it’s importance as a centre for cloth and leather production during Roman and medieval times to the west of the Hortillonages. It specialised in blue cloth, since local growing conditions favoured the production of Woad Isatis tinctoria from which the chemical dye Indigo comes from.

Our garden pays homage to this important part of the history of Amiens and the remnants of an industry through a series of interwoven threads of yellow and blue planting across a large area of the island. The garden is represented as a remnant of woven cloth through planting and threads of black stained timber edging. It is predominately all about plants and how they can combine to create a dramatic space that will be used as a focus for future festivals.