Tori Johnson, University of New Mexico landscape architecture graduate student, presented “Forest Table,” her winning landscape design entry for the annual International Garden Festival in Chaumont-sur-Loire in France. Students in the school’s landscape architecture studio five participated in the design competition, which is open to professionals and amateurs alike.
Photo: Tori Johnson
Alfred Simon, director of the UNM School of Architecture and Planning’s landscape architecture program, said that the competition funds construction of the project. “We are going to raise money to send four people over for ten days to build it,” he said.
The festival will be open from April 30 to Oct. 19, with peak crowds expected during holiday weekends.
“We may expect up to 4,000 visitors per day who will walk through the gardens or play in the interactive gardens,” Simon said.
Johnson said, “Each year 26 gardens are selected to be built at the festival. It appears that each year three or four student designs are chosen. The rest are professional firms or artists. I think each year at least one designer/firm is invited to participate. It’s good company.”
Ever since its creation in 1992, the International Garden Festival has become an essential event in the worldwide arena of landscape design. A meeting place for artists, designers, landscape experts and sculptors of different nationalities, the festival’s spirit of encouragement and competition has proven to stimulate top creative minds to reflect upon nature, its management and new forms of development.
From its first years, the festival has offered several hundred young creators a magnificent display case for their ideas and designs, and for some, has acted as a virtual springboard to professional success.
Year after year, it has been a source of inspiration for professionals and amateurs alike, helping to innovate gardening arts and to share the discovery of new planting schemes and unusual, unexpected new materials.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu