Vertical Gardens in Paris, July 2009

By Christine Thüring

August 4, 2009
All Photos by Christine Thüring unless otherwise noted.

Christine's Ramblings
 

Christine, vertical garden gazing in Paris.

Introduction

In early July 2009, the stars aligned to take me on a long-awaited trip to Paris, France.  This may seem a bit dramatic, since booking a weekend to visit a major city on the same continent shouldn’t require celestial cooperation.  Well, for whatever reasons, I had yearned to visit Paris for a long time but had never found the time or impetus to do so.

The reason for my interest in Paris is living walls, locally known as murs végétalisés or vertical gardens, as designed by the famous botanist-cum-artist, Patrick Blanc.  I learned about these walls from a French intern who came to BCIT to learn about green roofs.  At the time, Nicolas was a student at the French Institut National d'Horticulture, and had also worked for a company specializing in vertical garden installations.  For us green roof folk, Nicolas’ perspective was unique and exotic. His photos revealed a dimension of ecological art which I’d never even dreamed could exist, neither conceptually nor logistically.  What a treat!

And so it came about that in early July 2009, the perfect combination of invitations drew me, finally, to Paris.  Completely independent of each other, some good friends from Canada were in Paris that same weekend.  It’s always good to re-connect with friends, especially in new cities.  Moreover, my home in the Tyrolean Alps had been trapped under bottomless rain clouds for weeks, and the cold dreariness was starting to get under my skin.  Thus I prepared a detailed map of projects, booked my train, and spent a glorious long weekend in sunny Paris.

The Projects

Further to Nicolas’ suggestions, I compiled a list of projects from Patrick Blanc’s and from other websites.  Of the eight projects on my list, I visited five and photographed three.  Time constraints and/ or geographic inconvenience prevented me from even attempting to find the projects at Jardin d’Acclimatation, Bois de Vincennes, and Montparnasse.  For the first two, I lacked addressed locations, which implied a high probability of aimless searching, and the third, Fondation Cartier in Montparnasse, is closed on Mondays.

Map of visited vertical garden locations in Paris, via Google.

Hotel xyz

The first day in Paris began much like that of any tourist, at the famous Charles de Gaule Étoile.  From this remarkable monument, which unites nine major streets and is the first intentional traffic round-about in the world, we took a brief stroll down the Champs Elysées, forked off south-west and found the first site of interest.

Without address in hand, I would not likely ever have set foot inside this elegant hotel.  Built in 1929 and since under the sponsorship of certain élite groups, one has the sense of entering a club of sorts . I think we were lucky with our timing, as the sound of vacuum cleaning and lack of guests suggested the hotel was in downtime and could accept silly guests off the streets.  Out of respect for the hotel, I have not named it here.

Top third of vertical garden in Hotel xyz, Paris.

The vertical garden in the courtyard of this hotel is so big, and the courtyard so tight, that anything other than a fish-eye lens fails to capture the full scene.  The garden covers one side of the courtyard, from the ground-floor up to the the building’s parapet.  The other walls of the courtyard feature windows and small balconies of cast iron filigree.  The courtyard itself is a chic dining area with leather couches, a sweeping candle arrangement, and elegant table dressings.

At the top, where the vertical garden meets with a small square of blue sky, birds flit around and send leaves floating lazily down to land quietly on the exquisitely set tables.  The angle imparted by the shrubs creates a bizarre optical illusion to the observer below.  As you look to the upward-growing shrubs, your sense of gravity begins to waver: suddenly you don’t know whether the shrubs are horizontal, or if perhaps they are actually vertical and the earth has shifted beneath you such that you are the horizontal one.  Certainly our tea was expensive, but we didn’t expect it to render such an effect!
 

Hotel xyz, Paris.

This vertical garden is clearly the work of a botanist.  The bottom third of the wall, which receives only incidental light, hosts a tropical composition of at least 25 species of orchids, ferns, and flowering plants.  This part of the wall may be Patrick Blanc’s signature, as he has been a researcher of subtropical jungles since 1982.  The middle part of the wall is planted mostly with ferns, small shrubs, and mat-forming herbs.  Finally, the top section of the wall is planted with sun-loving shrubs, including some very obvious Buddleia.

Musee du Quai Branly

One of Blanc’s most famous vertical gardens in Paris covers the entire north-west facade of the Musée Quai Branly.  Again the ecologist’s touch is obvious here: the facade is oriented to the north-west, facing the River Seine with just a park and small streets in between, such that the climatic conditions permit the middle range of plants as seen in the Hotel, with the top again featuring sun-lovers like Buddleia.

Musée Quai Branly.

As with any interesting feature of landscape architecture, it’s interesting to watch people’s reactions to such a dramatic wall of vegetation.  Faced with something so strange, so new, so surprising, all observers are united as one.  Whether security guards, architects, grandmothers, living architecture fans or normal tourists, each of us experiences at least a moment of awe.

Of course that’s when the questions set it, the curiosity that can quickly transform the magic of creation into logical formulae.  How are the plants held in from falling out?  What kind of substrate do they grow in?  How much maintenance is required?  How often are plants replaced?  How much water does it need (or rather, how wet does it need to stay)?  Where does the water come from and how is it supplied?

Musée Quai Branly, something for everyone (with the Eiffel Tower nearby).

Fortunately, the magic of these vertical gardens is easily maintained as it’s difficult to find the answers to such questions.  Patrick Blanc himself is highly inaccessible.  At best, the local employees can say that the murs végétalisés require a lot of water.  The waiter at the Hotel said their vertical garden is automatically watered five times/ day.  I recall some of Nicolas’ photos showing Musée de Quai Branly fronted by a sidewalk of puddles.

Musee du Quai Branly - a view upwards.

BHV Homme
 
My third and final vertical garden in Paris was on a small medieval street in downtown Paris, above a storefront window. BHV (from Bazaar de l’Hôtel de Ville) is a big department store in France with its flagship store facing Rue Rivoli and l’Hôtel de Ville (City Hall). One block behind the grandness of the main building, BHV Homme sits humbly facing its rear facade. Covering about 2/3 of this small, shadowed building, a vertical garden radiates a green vibrancy that is totally contrary to its built environment.

BHV Homme, 12 rue Temple en Paris.

I was struck by the local climatic conditions facing this apparently successful project.  Considering Paris’ characteristically hot summers, the south-west vantage of this facade and its concrete environment ought to be deadly for any plant.  However, being located in the medieval district of Le Marais, which is typified by tight little streets, Rue Temple feels more like a sunken moat than a street.  Indeed, the walls of the main BHV store rise steep and high for the whole length of the block.  Could it be that the vertical garden here is protected by this shading, like an urban canyon?  Does the angle of the street, with relation to the sun’s path, further protect the vertical garden from dessication?
 

BHV Homme, 12 rue Temple en Paris.

As at Musée Quai Branly, here we find the familiar middle- and top plant palettes, with impressive shrubs creating shade at parapet heights.  My visit to the site was at around 15:00, and the vertical garden was in full sun (although neighbouring buildings were shaded).  I wonder whether the vertical garden is shaded for the majority of the day?  It’s clear that the sun has limited range on Rue Temple, but clearly there is enough to maintain a vibrant vertical garden.

Summary: Vertical Gardens in Paris
 
In summary, I scouted a total of five sites and was rewarded with three existent projects.  Regarding water consumption by these systems, I’m certain that approaches for sustainable water use could easily be integrated, if not already so (e.g. greywater recycling).  In addition to those mentioned, I look forward to returning to Paris in in 2016 to visit the vertical garden in Musée de Radio France (currently under construction).  I also learned that the Ministere de Culture does not actually have a vertical garden (hopefully this has been updated on Patrick Blanc’s website by now), but features rather a 170 m2 experimental garden recreating an Australian dry forest in an (off-limit) courtyard.

Left: Radio France, Paris.  Right: Ministere de Culture, Paris.

Green spaces in Paris

Beyond these luxurious vertical gardens I was surprised at how little green space Paris has. Having been settled for over 2,000 years and spared destruction by WW2, most of the city’s green spaces are remnants from the past. Extravagant gardens of the rich, for example, have since become important lungs and recreation grounds for the city. For instance, Marie de Médici’s Florentine-style garden at Palais de Luxembourg is an essential green space for the Left Bank of the Seine, while Catherine de Médici’s formal Tuileries Gardens now spreads before the Louvre.  Cemeteries also represent major green spaces, as do institutional military fields (e.g. Champs Mars by the Eiffel Tower, or Esplanade des Invalides).  Unfortunately, sitting or walking on the grass in these parks is not always permitted.

We wanted to lie on the grass and this is what we got. Relaxing with wine in Luxembourg Gardens, Paris.

I was also surprised at the quality of water in Paris’ fountains and ponds.  In front of the Gothic church of St. Eustache, for instance, the elaborately landscaped waterfalls and pools were completely dried out, nothing but fine green algae clinging to life in the few remaining wet spots.  It was surreal to observe people engaged in the usual city park activities (reclining, sitting, reading, sketching, nuzzling, etc.), seemingly oblivious to the fact that their backdrop is a pool of scum rather than a bubbling waterfall.  This was not the only such green pond in Paris, either.

Left: St. Eustache, Paris.  Right: Eglise St-Merri, Paris.  As if Niki St-Phalle’s sculptures lack colour.

Nevertheless, in spite of the intensely urbanized places, Paris does behold some green features.  Near the modernized area of Les Halles, a series of trellised pathways grant lovely shade and connect the network of landscaped public gardens.  These allées would have been built around late 1970s when, after 800 years as Paris’ original marketplace, the area was demolished and renovated.

Trellis walking paths in Les Halles, Paris, France.

In addition to the few renovated areas of the city, many of Paris’ modern buildings have rooftop gardens, some which are visible from below.

Roof gardens near Champs Mars, Paris.  Eiffel Tower looms, right.

Roof garden view from Sacre Coeur. Notice Bois de Vincennes on horizon.

~ Christine Thüring
 

Christine Thuring has been focused on green roofs since 2001.  After interning with a green roof company in Germany, she earned a MSc from Pennsylvania State University's Centre for Green Roof Research (2005).  She helped organize the World Green Roof Congress in Basel (2005), as well as the green roof presence at United Nations' World Urban Forum III in Vancouver (2006).  Christine has served as researcher and teacher of green roof courses at BCIT Centre for Architectural Ecology, and helped develop Green Roofs for Healthy Cities' 401 accreditation course.  She has been the Student Editor at Greenroofs.com since 2004.  Sign up for her Student Forum Newsletter, "Students on Green Roofs" and her column "Green Roofs on the Curve."  All feedback and comments are warmly welcomed, please share your thoughts with us!

You may contact Christine at:  christine@greenroofs.com or StudentEditor@greenroofs.com.

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