Jacques Wirtz, one of most innovative landscape designer, dies at 93
05/08/2018.
[Schoten] Belgium
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Jacques Wirtz an Belgian landscape architect and one of Europe’s most widely respected landscape and garden designer, famous for his innovative gardens, organic mounds, blending sculptural treatment of boxwood and yew hedges with a deep knowledge of plants and flowers, has died aged 93, on July 21, at his home in Schoten, Belgium.
Crystalline private museum in Mol-Rauw, Belgium. Image courtesy of Wirtz International
The gardens at the 11th-century Alnwick Castle in England. Image by Bertrand Limbour, courtesy of Wirtz International
A Wirtz design: Jubilee Park at Canary Wharf in London. Image courtesy of Wirtz International
“A garden that is not beautiful in winter is not a beautiful garden,” haid Jacques Wirtz.
The most iconic aspect of the Wirtz style is his unconventional and sculptural use of clipped hedges. When Wirtz moved into his current house, he inherited a row of overgrown boxwoods that lined a walk. Too spindly to be trimmed into a rectilinear form, Wirtz followed the natural contours of the branching, creating a pillowy, cloud-like effect. It is this attention to natural form that gives Wirtz’s work its creative edge.
His breakthrough international project was after being commissioned to design the garden for the Belgian pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka. His travels to Japan also provided him with an advanced horticultural education in Japanese gardens, which are known for their precision, and helped influence his gardening.
His reputation grew even more when he won a design contest for the redesigned Jardin du Carrousel, perhaps his largest public commission which links the Louvre to the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, a long-running project which started in 1990 and was completed in 2004. President Mitterrand also asked him to redesign the gardens at the Élysée Palace (1992).
In addition to many small and large gardens for industrial or domestic settings, his firm has designed gardens in Belgium at Cogels Park in Schoten (1977), the campus of Antwerp University (1978), Bremweide Park in Antwerp (1978), for the Belgian headquarters of BMW at Bornemat (1985), a garden running down the centre of Albert II Boulevard in Brussels (1992), and gardens at the Château De Groote Mot in Borgloon (1994), part of the garden at Hex Castle in Heers (1995), and the garden at the Château de Vinderhoute (1997); in Luxembourg, for the Banque de Luxembourg (1996) and Banque Générale du Luxembourg (1997); and the renovated garden at Alnwick Castle (2001) where he included a labyrinth with 500 bamboo plants, a rose garden with 3,000 roses in 180 varieties. Other works were Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf in England.
His breakthrough international project was after being commissioned to design the garden for the Belgian pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka. His travels to Japan also provided him with an advanced horticultural education in Japanese gardens, which are known for their precision, and helped influence his gardening.
His reputation grew even more when he won a design contest for the redesigned Jardin du Carrousel, perhaps his largest public commission which links the Louvre to the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, a long-running project which started in 1990 and was completed in 2004. President Mitterrand also asked him to redesign the gardens at the Élysée Palace (1992).
In addition to many small and large gardens for industrial or domestic settings, his firm has designed gardens in Belgium at Cogels Park in Schoten (1977), the campus of Antwerp University (1978), Bremweide Park in Antwerp (1978), for the Belgian headquarters of BMW at Bornemat (1985), a garden running down the centre of Albert II Boulevard in Brussels (1992), and gardens at the Château De Groote Mot in Borgloon (1994), part of the garden at Hex Castle in Heers (1995), and the garden at the Château de Vinderhoute (1997); in Luxembourg, for the Banque de Luxembourg (1996) and Banque Générale du Luxembourg (1997); and the renovated garden at Alnwick Castle (2001) where he included a labyrinth with 500 bamboo plants, a rose garden with 3,000 roses in 180 varieties. Other works were Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf in England.
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Jacques Wirtz
Jacques Wirtz (31 December 1924, Antwerp, Belgium – 21 July 2018, Schoten, Belgium) to Maurice and Maria (Van Nes) Wirtz. He was a Belgian landscape gardener. Wirtz was born in Schoten, a suburb of Antwerp. His family were stockbrokers. He studied landscape architecture at a horticultural school in Vilvoorde. He was forced to work in a nursery in Germany during the Second World War. He started his own business in 1950, as garden designer and later landscape architect. He has four children. His sons Martin (born 1963) and Peter (born 1961) joined the firm in 1990. It is the largest landscape design business in Belgium.
Wirtz is particularly noted for his use of evergreens clipped to create undulating "clouds" of foliage, creating a green architecture that lasts all year, together with a retrained palette of herbaceous planting. He believes that his gardens should preserve and enhance the spirit of place, rather than stamping his own mark on the landscape.
He came to public notice after being commissioned to design the garden for the Belgian pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka. Perhaps his largest public commission was the redesigned Jardin du Carrousel in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, a long-running project which started in 1990 and was completed in 2004. President Mitterrand also asked him to redesign the gardens at the Élysée Palace (1992). In addition to many small and large gardens for industrial or domestic settings, his firm has designed gardens in Belgium at Cogels Park in Schoten (1977), the campus of Antwerp University (1978), Bremweide Park in Antwerp (1978), for the Belgian headquarters of BMW at Bornemat (1985), a garden running down the centre of Albert II Boulevard in Brussels (1992), and gardens at the Château De Groote Mot in Borgloon (1994), part of the garden at Hex Castle in Heers (1995), and the garden at the Château de Vinderhoute (1997); in Luxembourg, for the Banque de Luxembourg (1996) and Banque Générale du Luxembourg (1997); and the renovated garden at Alnwick Castle (2001), and Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf in England.
He received the Golden Medal of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in 2006, when he was compared with André Le Nôtre, William Kent, and Lancelot “Capability” Brown.
Wirtz is particularly noted for his use of evergreens clipped to create undulating "clouds" of foliage, creating a green architecture that lasts all year, together with a retrained palette of herbaceous planting. He believes that his gardens should preserve and enhance the spirit of place, rather than stamping his own mark on the landscape.
He came to public notice after being commissioned to design the garden for the Belgian pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka. Perhaps his largest public commission was the redesigned Jardin du Carrousel in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, a long-running project which started in 1990 and was completed in 2004. President Mitterrand also asked him to redesign the gardens at the Élysée Palace (1992). In addition to many small and large gardens for industrial or domestic settings, his firm has designed gardens in Belgium at Cogels Park in Schoten (1977), the campus of Antwerp University (1978), Bremweide Park in Antwerp (1978), for the Belgian headquarters of BMW at Bornemat (1985), a garden running down the centre of Albert II Boulevard in Brussels (1992), and gardens at the Château De Groote Mot in Borgloon (1994), part of the garden at Hex Castle in Heers (1995), and the garden at the Château de Vinderhoute (1997); in Luxembourg, for the Banque de Luxembourg (1996) and Banque Générale du Luxembourg (1997); and the renovated garden at Alnwick Castle (2001), and Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf in England.
He received the Golden Medal of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in 2006, when he was compared with André Le Nôtre, William Kent, and Lancelot “Capability” Brown.
