European Garden Award 2011

Europäischer Gartenpreis 2011

After the successful start in 2010, the European Garden Awards by EGHN and the Schloss Dyck Foundation was awarded for the second time on Friday 2nd September 2011.

Here are winners and finalists of the European Garden Award 2011 in three categories:

• Best Development of a Historic Park or Garden
• Most Innovative Contemporary Concept or Design of a Park or Garden
• Special Award of the Schloss Dyck Foundation

CATEGORY 1:
BEST DEVELOPMENT OF A HISTORIC PARK OR GARDEN

WINNER: VILLA OTTOLENGHI (ITALY)
Designed by Pietro Porcinai

The Monterosso complex in Acqui Terme is the only example in Italy of a close collaboration between architects, painters, sculptors and patrons giving life to a villa filled with important works of art.

Count Arturo Ottolenghi and his wife Herta von Wedekind zu Horst entrusted the design of the gardens of Villa Ottolenghi  to the Italian landscape architect Pietro Porcinai.

Around the villa he created the formal garden, both in communication with architecture of the villa and with nature. His design incorporated the well, the studies, the “Cisterone” and included the walk that runs along the border of the complex.

With the Graffiti, the wisteria pergola, the pool, the cellar, the works of arts and small details they form a path of discovery. Visitors can also enjoy the first Japanese garden of Porcinai, called "Garden of Stones."

In 2006 Villa Ottolenghi was sold to a wine merchant couple who developed the site and the gardens as a flagship within their business.

Laudation (by Mariachiara Pozzana), more photos and external link to Villa Ottolenghi.

FINALIST: 
CHATEAU DE LA BOURDAISIERE (FRANCE)
- more information
 

FINALIST:
ORPHEUS AT BOUGHTON (UK)
- more information

CATEGORY 2:
INNOVATIVE CONTEMPORARY CONCEPT OR DESIGN OF A PARK OR GARDEN

WINNER: JUPITER ARTLAND (UK)
Designed by Nicky Wilson and various artists

Jupiter Artland is a contemporary sculpture garden in the grounds of Bonnington House, outside Edinburgh. Works by many leading artists have been commissioned and then constructed in situ. The relationship of each artwork with its specific topographical location is a crucial feature of Artland: art within the landscape and a garden of discovery.

Robert and Nicky Wilson bought Bonnington House, a Jacobean manor house within a 32 hectares estate, in 1999. Within a few years, the formal gardens, fields and woodlands surrounding this historic house became the perfect milieu for a sculpture park, influenced by Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta, some thirty miles from Bonnington.

Jupiter Artland has charitable status and is committed to providing an educational resource for schools in the region. Students and children may touch, feel and explore these works of art using their senses, imagination and intellect. The Foundation also offers annual residency.

Laudation (by Ed Bennis), more photos and external link to Jupiter Artland.

FINALIST: 
PARKS AND GARDENS OF ENKÖPING (SWEDEN)
- more information
 

FINALIST:
FATHER COLLINS PARK (IRELAND)
- more information

CATEGORY 3:
SPECIAL AWARD OF THE SCHLOSS DYCK FOUNDATION

WINNER: ARLEY HALL & GARDENS (UK)
Designed by Egerton-Warburton, cared by Viscount & Viscountess Ashbrook

Arley’s listed grounds cover over 7 ha. The gardens have been created over the last 250 years by successive generations of the same family and thus offer an unusual blend of long history and traditional design with inspired modern ideas and additions. The result is a garden rich in atmosphere, interest and vitality – a wonderful example of the idea that the best gardens are living, changing works of art.

Highlights include the double herbaceous border, said to be the oldest example of its kind in the U.K. and the Ilex Avenue that helps lead the eye into the parkland beyond. These 14 evergreen holm oaks are clipped into an unusual and distinctive cylindrical shape.

The new head gardener, Gordon Baillee, aims at improving the borrowed landscape, extending behind the garden’s haha and the pictures it delivers over the year. He is in the favourite position that most of the land belongs to the owners of Arley as well.

With all these, very well maintained features, with a carefully integrated restaurant, a shop, a plant centre and much more, Arley Hall and Gardens deliver what garden lovers and tourists expect as a “typical English garden”.

Laudation (by Roswitha Arnold), more photos and external link to Arley Hall.

FINALIST: 
PATRICK BLANC (FRANCE)
- more information