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Transforming the world, one garden at a time
Dominique Lafourcade – Landscape Architect and Artist
What guides your creative world?
There are two quotes that serve as my compass. One, from Horace:
“He who mingles use and beauty, simplicity and grandeur, will not have worked in vain.”
The other: “Nihil sine cura” – nothing good without care.
Together, they remind me that effort, attention and imagination can turn any space into something meaningful and enduring.
Where does your creativity come from?
I’ve always lived in a creative bubble. My imagination has never had an off switch, and I’ve always had a natural gift for drawing – a way of building an inner world that I could live in. Nature has always been the richest source of inspiration: it surrounds us, sustains us, and provides the textures, colours, forms and rhythms that feed all my creations – paintings, objects, and most of all, gardens.
How did you become a garden designer?
The vocation arrived suddenly, during a visit to the Gamberaia gardens near Florence. That place opened my eyes to the emotional power of a true garden: the interplay of architecture, perspective, water, perfume, colour, and the vast living library of plants.
Looking back, what fascinates me about creative professions is the learning process itself. I never trained formally in landscape architecture – it was passion alone that guided me. You learn by watching, by listening, by absorbing. One day, some of my husband’s clients came to our home and, after seeing the water feature and pond I’d made, asked if I would design their garden. That’s how it all began.
What does your process look like today?
With each project, I’ve developed a working method that allows me to create a universe that reflects the owners’ wishes and resonates with the surrounding landscape. As Wordsworth wrote, “The garden creates not only an aesthetic setting for a house but also a healthy environment.”
The principle is the same whether I’m working with plants or recycled objects – tin cans, fabric scraps, broken tiles, wood, bottle caps. I’m always searching for metamorphosis: taking something forgotten or unremarkable and turning it into something dreamlike.
What does this work mean to you now?
Designing a garden is a kind of transformation. You begin with a wasteland, an abandoned corner, or an old, tired garden – and you become a kind of fairy, waving your wand to create something that tells a new story. A story for the house, for the people who will live there.
Give me a studio and a garden, and I will be in my element.
Dominique Lafourcade
Landscape Architect and Artist
28 avenue Vincent van Gogh
13210 Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
France
+33 4 90 20 37 51
contact@dominique-lafourcade.com
www.dominique-lafourcade.com
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