Louis Benech (born February 16, 1957) is a French gardener, landscaper, and landscape architect.[1] He is sometimes called "France's greatest living landscape designer."[2]

Education and early career

Benech was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine.[1] He grew up on the Île de Ré, which, being continually swept by gales, has very few trees. As a boy, he loved nature, especially trees and birds, and collected plants and insects. When he went to France's mainland, he began kissing trees.[3] During the summers from 1970 to 1976 he learned English and worked as a gardener in a park in Perthshire, Scotland. During the summer of 1977 he traveled to the United States, collected seeds across North America, and visited the Arnold Arboretum.[4][5]

As a teenager, Benech wanted to study forestry in one of France's agro schools, such as Institut Agro Rennes-Angers. However, he performed poorly in mathematics and physics and excellently in English and philosophy so he decided to study law. When he started his law studies, he taught English to inmates in prisons.[3] In 1982 he interrupted his law studies and becomes a horticultural worker in Southampton, England at Hillier Nurseries[6][7] and worked there for a year and a half.[5] He obtained the horticultural position with the help of Robert Mallet-Stevens.[3] Upon returning to the study of law, Benech wrote his mémoire in comparative law on how France, Switzerland, and Russia dealt with the legal protection of plants.[3] After graduating with a master's degree in labor law, he started an internship in a law firm, but found the work unpleasant.[5] In 1985 he decided to abandon the practice of law and become a gardener and landscaper, starting his own company in Paris.[7][1]

Career as a landscaper with an international reputation

Benech's first major commission was near the village of Cernay, Eure-et-Loir for the gardens of Château du Bois Hinoust, which had recently been purchased by Stanislas and Leticia Poniatowski.[8] By 1987 Benech gained a significant reputation.[7] He became a landscape gardener on a private property in Normandy[9] at the Piencourt stud farm, which led to him finding several other clients, including Marie-Hélène de Rothschild, Anne d'Ornano, and Pierre Bergé for the gardens of Château Gabriel in Benerville-sur-Mer.[5] In 1990 Benech, with Pascal Cribier and François Roubaud, won the competition for the renovation of the old part of the Tuileries Garden (Jardin des Tuileries).[1][7] The work at the Tuileries Garden in Paris launched Benech into a national and international career which made him one of the world's most prominent landscape designers.[6][10] The Tuileries project spread over ten years and brought recognition with multiple requests from wealthy garden owners.[5] During the project, Benech and his team planted more than 3,000 trees.[11]

Besides the Tuileries Garden, some of the best examples of landscaping done by Benech are at the Water Theater Grove in the Palace of Versailles,[12][13] the Élysée Palace Gardens in Paris, the rose garden of Rose Pavilion in Pavlovsk Park, Saint Petersburg, and the Gardens of the Achilleion Palace in Corfu.[14] Some of the other many already established gardens, that Benech has worked on include the Quai d'Orsay, the estate of Courson, the quadrilateral (main square) of France's National Archives,[15][16] and the Hauteville House.[17] At the beginning of the 2010s, he worked on the partial renovation of the park of domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire[18][19] and a diagnosis on the Château de Maisons-Laffitte.

In 2002 he created an outstanding, non-irrigated garden in Greece.[1] According to Benech, 80% of the Greek islands have a natural inadequacy of fresh water.[20]

By the beginning of the 2020s, Benech had designed and carried out with his Parisian team more than 500 public and private park and garden projects.[5] His projects for individuals lead him to work in France and abroad[7] (in Greece, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland, Egypt, Panama, Canada, United States, and New Zealand's Chatham Islands).[5][21] He also completed projects for institutions such as Axa (Hôtel de la Vaupalière in Paris in 2000), Suez (former Hôtel Suchet[22] in Paris in 2001), the gardens of Château de Pange belonging to the general council of Moselle,[7] and Hermès (Dosan Park[23] in Seoul in 2006; Ateliers de Pantin, since 2008).

Benech's approach to garden design

Benech emphasizes that he began as a gardener with an extensive, practical knowledge of plants. According to Benech, French garden owners focus on a garden's design rather than the garden's individual plants, while English garden owners focus more on the plants chosen and the variety of cultivars. He tries to adapt the garden to the surrounding landscape and the house near the garden. He takes into account what the garden's owners want and need and then focuses on economical and maintenance issues more than garden art.[24]

With an eclectic style,[7] the creations of Louis Benech are characterized by his concern to harmonize the landscape with the architectural or natural environment of the site, to create perennial gardens (with necessary ecological considerations), and to combine plant aesthetics with the local ecosystem, the use that will be made of the garden, and the technical constraints of maintenance. Benech takes into account hydrological circulation and visual perspectives.[7]

Family and personal life

An uncle of the novelist and journalist Clément Bénech,[25] Louis Benech had a father who worked as an architect,[7] a mother who loved flowers, and two grandmothers who enjoyed gardening.[26]

Louis Benech was the companion of French fashion designer Christian Louboutin from about 1997 to about 2016. The two divided their time between homes in various places, including France, Egypt, and the Maldives.[27][28]

Selected projects

View of Rose Pavilion, in Pavlovsk Park.

Awards and honours

Bibliography

  • Castellucio, Stéphane; Mabille, Gérard; Benech, Louis (23 April 1998). Vues de jardins de Marly: Le roi jardinier. Gourcuff. ISBN 2-909838-27-7; 236 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Benech, Louis (6 May 1998). L'esprit du jardin: Structures, rythmes et proportions. fleurs et couleurs (in French). Paris: éditions du Chêne. ISBN 2-84277-076-5; 144 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Benech, Louis; Patrice de Nussac; Herscher, Georges (10 August 1999). Jardins de cuisiniers (in French). Arles: Actes Sud. ISBN 2-7427-2426-5; 189 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Brochard, Daniel; Benech, Louis (1 February 2004). Le jardin de ville (in French). Paris: Nathan. ISBN 2-09-261061-9; 160 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Erik Orsenna (préface); Jansen Eric (text); Sander, Eric (photographs) (1 October 2012). Louis Benech, douze jardins en France (in French). Montreuil: Gourcuff Gradenigo. ISBN 978-2-35340-131-4; 222 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Jansen, Eric Louis Benech, douze jardins ailleurs, éditions Gourcuff-Gradenigo, 2020. ISBN 978-2353403141; 2013 edition in English[26] ISBN 2353401554

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Le parcours du jardinier Louis Benech (The career of gardener Louis Benech)". La Croix. April 2011.
  2. ↑ Thomas, Dana (October 12, 2016). "How his gardens grew: Louis Benech, France's most revered landscape designer, looks back on his seminal projects ..." (PDF). T: The New York Times Style Magazine. pp. 108–115.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hawthorne, Mary (May 30, 2015). "The Shoes of Le Nôtre". The New Yorker.
  4. ↑ "Le parcours du jardinier Louis Benech". La Croix. April 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Massalovitch, Sophie (26 August 2021). "Louis Benech: Kardinier du monde". Challenges (707): 64–66. ISSN 0751-4417.
  6. 1 2 Boyer, Paula (1 April 2011). "Louis Benech, the garden as an art of living". La Croix.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prévost, Marie-Eudes Lauriot (23 January 2003). "Paysagiste par nature". L'Express.
  8. ↑ Vanamee, Norman (5 January 2016). "This French Country Estate Boasts Unbelievably Beautiful Gardens by Louis Benech". architecturaldigest.com.
  9. ↑ Sultan, Mylène (13 June 1998). "Le jardinier du Tout-Paris". lepoint.fr. Le Point.
  10. ↑ "Louis Benech: Meet the AD100 2023 Hall of Fame". 30 November 2021.
  11. ↑ "Louis Benech". Alain Elkann Interviews. December 13, 2015.
  12. ↑ Thomas, Dana (June 11, 2014). "In Nature | The Gardener of Versailles". T Magazine: The New York Times Style Magazine.
  13. ↑ Marcus, J. S. (May 2014). "Louis Benech's Gardens of Earthly Delights". Wall Street Journal.
  14. ↑ Renner, Suze (April 18, 2023). "17 famous landscape architects and their best designs". Style.
  15. ↑ Site des Archives Nationales
  16. ↑ "Louis Benech, à l'écoute du paysages" (PDF). Horticulture & Paysage. May 2014. pp. 12–13. (interview)
  17. ↑ Thomas, Dana (15 February 2019). "Victor Hugo Was Not Only a Talented Writer but Also a Gifted Interior Designer". architecturaldigest.com.
  18. ↑ Besson, Bruno (28 April 2012). "Delights and deliriums in the gardens of Chaumont". lanouvellerepublique.fr. Nouvelle République du Center-Ouest (NRCO).
  19. ↑ "The gentle garden". Air France Madame. No. 147. Condé Nast. April 2012. pp. 74–76. ISSN 0980-7519.
  20. ↑ "Le métier de paysagiste". Cahiers Philosophiques (2): 109–119. 2019. doi:10.3917/caph1.157.0109. S2CID 204641520; entretien avec Louis Benech, propos recueillis par Barbara de Negroni{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  21. ↑ "Louis Benech, discret génie des jardins". connaissancedesarts.com. March 2021.
  22. ↑ Devedjian, Jocelyn (1 March 2001). "Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux offre un cocon de verre à l'hotel Boulle (Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux offers a glass cocoon to the Boulle hotel)". Les Échos.
  23. ↑ Peyrani, Béatrice (9 November 2006). "Hermès voit grand (Hermès thinks big)". Le Point. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  24. ↑ Dickey, Page (January 2003). "Louis Benech". Breaking Ground: Portraits of Ten Garden Designers. Artisan Books. pp. 176–193. ISBN 978-1-57965-238-8.
  25. ↑ “Encoreheureux” of September 4, 2013 , franceinter.fr.
  26. 1 2 Rostaing, Jeanne (11 October 2013). "Review of Louis Benech: Twelve French Gardens by Eric Jansen". Gardenista.
  27. ↑ Marshall, Alexandra (June 2008). "Christian Louboutin, Shoe Designer and Stylish Traveler". Travel+Leisure. American Express Publishing Corporation. Archived from the original on 2008-06-08.
  28. ↑ Montet, Thomas (7 October 2016). "Christian Louboutin: Papa de deux petites filles !". Purepeople.
  29. ↑ "jardins pérennes des Prés du Goualoup (perennial gardens of the Prés du Goualoup)". domaine-chaumont.fr. 2017.
  30. ↑ AFP (21 June 2011). "Des pins parasols au cœur du Marais: les jardins des Archives ouvrent mardi (parasol pines in the heart of the Marais: the Archives gardens open on Tuesday)". lepoint.fr. Le Point.
  31. ↑ Chahine, Nathalie (5 September 2012). "The most arty: the Royal Monceau". L'Express Styles. L'Express (3175): 92. ISSN 0014-5270.
  32. 1 2 3 "Five Stunning Gardens by Louis Benech". archtecturaldigest.com. 24 November 2016.
  33. ↑ "Jardim das Princesas". Museu Nacional.
  34. 1 2 "Designer Louis Benech Explains His Garden Designs". Cottages & Gardens. 29 March 2021.
  35. ↑ "Louis Benech". La Petite Escalate (lpe-jardin.org).
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