By Patrick Blanc
At the age of five, Patrick Blanc was sitting in his family doctor’s office and became mesmerized by an aquarium in the waiting room. The fish, the plants, the habitat…everything about it was fascinating to him. Ever since, studying, cultivating, and replicating aquatic and plant life it has been Blanc’s passion. Now, he is a scientist at the CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) in France and was awarded the French Society Award for Botany in 1993.
Blanc is the creator of vertical gardens. He has made plant life into an art form, and has traveled the world, using various structures—natural and manmade—as his canvases. The Vertical Garden takes the reader on a trip around the globe, capturing the beauty of Blanc’s horticultural creations. The full-color, oversized book gives the reader insight into Blanc’s process and progress, explaining his life’s work, from inspiration to structure, installation, and maintenance.
Blanc’s work reflects a new concept in modern architecture. “A new element has been added to the architectural lexicon,” writes celebrated French architect Jean Nouvel in the preface. “This green art must be underscored by architectural concepts, which it must in turn supplement. It is through this reciprocity that Patrick Blanc will nourish our cultural heritage.”
W.W. Norton & Company/192 pages.
Book Reviews are written by ChesapeakeHome Editorial Assistants, Interns, and Towson University English and Writing students.
