Tianshi Wang

The Perfume Garden

Situated in the bay on a sea dyke between saltmarsh and polder field, the Perfume Garden looks north to the ancient gardens of Mont-Saint-Michel and a singular dwelling, an inhabited screen designed for monitoring the southern landscape, a 19th century project of land reclamation, arable and pastoral, fertile, prosperous and subject to change.

The Perfume Garden comprises screens and walls that enclose a flower garden and house a laboratory, garden store, work and changing spaces, a public gate and reception and perfume shop. Entering through the reception gate, a visitor to the perfume garden ascends a ramp above the flower gardens following an elevated pathway through the scents of seasonal flowers to the sea dyke wall where they can enter the screen, move past the laboratory arriving at the junction of sea march and polder before returning to the bay and the journey north to the island.

Elevated on concrete footings, the timber, steel and mesh gantry walkways to the screen wall to the north nestles behind the sea dyke, a small irrigation channel beneath. Garden walls of granite and wood shelter discrete flower gardens. A lightweight ramp leads to the garden walk atop granite walls.