Botanist Patrick Blanc has been bringing the wilds of the rainforests to Parisian walls for over 30 years, most recently at the Jean Nouvel–designed Quai Branly museum. One lucky family, however, doesn’t have to go any farther than their living room to take in the wonders of Blanc’s vertical gardens.

The creator of the “plant wall,” a living canvas for indoor and outdoor vertical space, is in high demand. His trademark technique for a top-down, no-fuss, no-muss irrigation system, not to mention the 30 years of botanical research on three continents under his belt, have made him an urban garden guru. Recent creations include the hip Pershing Hall hotel and the Fondation Cartier in Paris, the swanky Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok, boutiques in New York and Paris, and restaurants in Los Angeles and beyond. With the lavish opening of the Jean Nouvel–designed Musée du Quai Branly in Paris in June, where he created a lush, 8,600-square-foot façade with 15,000 plants, big-scale commissions are flooding in.

Blanc’s work began, however, with homes—notably his own, a tropical rainforest doubling as an apartment on the outskirts of Paris, in Créteil. Even as major jobs began to elbow out most private commissions, some homeowners managed to persuade Blanc to create outdoor vertical gardens, seeking to add a “rural” element to their city views. The indoor vertical garden—Blanc’s true calling as a low-light specialist—however, had to wait until 2004, when Jean-Marc Dimanche phoned 
up from his 4,400-square-foot home, which was under 
construction in the Left Bank’s 14th arrondissement, with an idea for the 20-by-23-foot interior wall that 
was beginning to take shape.

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Hotel in Paris

Bangkok Emporium

“I knew of Patrick Blanc’s work far before I knew of him.  I had happened across a few of his installations during various travels.  Every time, I was stopped in my tracks in recognition of something truly amazing.  His vertical garden walls get me every time. Many are in France, but his work spans the globe.  Each is a textural tapestry of plants that offer green lushness to what is typically a surrounding area in dire need of something soft, living and fresh. The walls provide biodiversity in urban areas, help buildings with heating and cooling, clean the air, and to me, are some of the most beautiful and inspiring arrangements of plants I know.  Patrick Blanc is one of my design heroes – please…enjoy some of his work…”

Re-posted from Studio ‘g’

Each week Studio G profiles a different garden and explores what makes it interesting or special or unique. Not all the gardens they profile are delightful but they’re certainly unique. As we all know, when it comes to inspiration for innovation, creative input needs no reason it just needs regularlity so here it is folks. Eat up and enjoy. For those of you not familiar with Studio ‘g‘ – it’s a design blog written by Rochelle Greayer who runs Greayer Design Associates LLC. (a Boutique Design Firm that specializes in creating luxurious outdoor environments for Spa and Hospitality properties and Private Residences worldwide) based in Harvard, MA. dedicated to sharing landscape ideas, hotel resort and spa gardens, outdoor art and design and the latest in landscape products and services.

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