One would ask what is a motif today to collect such a volume book about one particular garden. One could answer: Because it’s La Gara, one exclusive example of a manor garden in Geneva that has undergone a continuous transformation by 18 generations of owners, and even squatters, with the first mention in 1555, up to the latest generation’s redefinition led by Erik Dhont which makes it a contemporary estate. Edited and co-authored by Anette Freytag the book The Gardens of La Gara. An 18th century estate in Geneva with gardens designed by Erik Dhont and a labyrinth by Markus Raetz, itself offers the answer why to write it.
Erik A. de Jong writes La Gara is an ensemble that represents both, topographia and topothesia, a specific place of work and life and an imagined, experiential landscape that has been orchestrated by human interventions and (re)framed by materials and conditions, reciprocally influencing the composition and its elements creating a merge of art and nature into a unique self. The personification of La Gara garden and especially plant dwellers as the participatory designers in elective affinity with humans may seem out of reach of one’s imagination yet the fact this “palimpsestuous” garden influenced by arbitrary, non-dogmatic styles, survived to this day, makes one think of its potency.
Through its rich history, many garden concepts can be attached to the La Gara, the agricultural estate, ferme ornée, pleasure garden, and formal garden, combining the French and the English-style park (incorporating the ha-ha), with distinct landscape compositions which are rarely preserved. Through La Gara, the essays accompanying the book investigate the aspects of the garden culture history that are delicate and important to preserve, with an important factor of upholding developed biodiversity rooted in the garden’s features such as ponds, the oak woodland, water canals, wetlands and grasslands, where many species find their home.
The latest (re)layering by Erik Dhont brings out and supports formerly blurred historic structures while adding to the mix of unexpected structural planting. The main features creating the ambience sequence are the tree-lined driveway, cour d’honneur connecting the buildings, walled canals, ornamental gardens and the orchard. Compositional formality is overreached by deformations created by scattered sculptural masses of Taxus baccata and others, with the latest addition of a labyrinth by an artist Markus Raetz, inspired by syllable mirroring and wordplay.
Moreover, the book situates the garden in a historical, political (and theological) context, tracing the owners’ life trails from the persecuted Protestants who fled France to the times when solely women took care of La Gara and portrays the current owners who wish to share a contemporary multigenerational life outside the city. An extensive research by Anette Freytag is supported by documentation, letters, photographs, cadastral data, plans and maps, that take us on a journey through this estate added by the thoughts of the designer Erik Dhont in the interview with presented sketches, models and planting designs.
We also share available discounts for the book from European and US distributors. The book is published in English, German and French. You can use the attached links and codes below.
“La Gara is an 18th-century country estate in Jussy, a village near Geneva, Switzerland. The buildings have been carefully restored by Swiss architect Verena Best, who also added coherent interventions to the interior design. The renowned Belgian landscape designer Erik Dhont reinterpreted and subtly redesigned the gardens and surrounding grounds, completed by a palindrome-like labyrinth designed by Swiss artist Markus Raetz. The book is a case study to explore, through the prism of one estate, all aspects of garden culture. The essays by Anette Freytag, Verena Best-Mast, Erik A. de Jong, Erik Dhont, Éric Dumont, Leïla el-Wakil, Iris Lauterbach, Gaël Maridat, Rainer Michael Mason, Markus Raetz, Luc-Éric Revilliod, and Natalie Rilliet investigate various aspects of its preservation and restoration of buildings and gardens and the contemporary interventions. Extensive plant lists and an insight into the landscape management to enhance biodiversity as well as newly commissioned photographs by renowned Swiss photographer Georg Aerni round out this beautifully designed volume.“
