Butterfly Garden, 13th International Gardens Festival, Chaumont sur Loire, France
Each year, from spring through fall since 1992, thousands of people visit this prestigious garden festival to experience gardens created by a number of landscape designers selected through an international competition. The Butterfly Garden was one of the selected entries in which the theme was ‘Chaos’.
The garden is an homage to Edward Lorenz, a pioneer in the study of chaos theory, and the author of the provocative question: “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”
The equation and resultant geometric form known as the ‘Lorenz Attractor’ inspired the design. Here, the weaving, orbiting but never repeating trajectories of this butterfly-like structure trace a pathway through ornamental grasses and flowers as well as water, steel, glass and stone.
In the creation of this garden, plants and grasses have been used as architectural elements. Careful consideration has been given to color, texture, size and shape. The plants have also been chosen for their hardiness and their quality of being interesting in any season with very little maintenance. The team, including also Chiara Principe and Ilaria Rossi Doria, participated in the final installation.
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