HGPG

Garden for an "Italian Villa"

The podium for the new house, designed with the input of the client with a preference for the style of Mediterranean models, sits on the old basement. With the possibility of rising groundwater, the cellar was constructed 1.5 metres above the surrounding ground level which falls away towards a former lake.

It seemed obvious to lay out the garden in several levels:

• The level around the house is raised above the surrounding terrain and retained by gabion walls; quince trees serve as parasols and mark out the terrace around the house which is surfaced with reinforced grass.
• Steel steps connect the lower garden rooms; the “Giardino segreto” in the east, whose tall hedges help to make the house’s podium more attractive.
• On the site of former garages and sheds, a garden was created in front of an existing south facing wall beneath a vine pergola.

A row of columnar white poplars lines the driveway that rises gently towards the house.