Precident Critique - Jacques Wirtz - The Wirtz Private Garden

Jacques Wirtz was a Belgian landscape architect. He studied landscape architecture at a horticultural school in Vilvoorde and started his own business in 1950 as a garden designer and later landscape architect. It is the largest landscape design business in Belgium. Particularly noted for his use of evergreens clipped to create undulating "clouds" of foliage together with a constrained palette of mostly herbaceous planting, Wirtz is able to create green architecture that lasts all year. His belief was that his designs should preserve and enhance the spirit of place, rather than stamping his own mark on the landscape. 

I am a fan of his work and its organic forms, especially his own private garden in northeast Antwerp. My favourite aspect of this garden, and of most of his designs is its hedging. Creative cloud topiary is a style I am very fond of, similar to les jardins de Marqueyssac in Dordogne, France, the Wirtz Private Garden has soft undulating hedges that remain effective and striking in all seasons. Due to the nature of it being a private landscape, the quality of the available photographs is limited. 

What appeals most to me about this landscape style is the ever-changing nature of it, and how custom the design concept is. While it's a very labour-intensive style, the effort required to maintain the design is so easily shown in the outcome which would personally be quite rewarding. The limited photos I found showing the floral elements show seasonal layers of bulbs and herbaceous perennials, typically in purple pink and blue hues, which personally add to the ethereal aesthetic of the space. 

Overall it feels like a very personal space, which fits its nature as a private garden. I have no opposing critique of the design as it fits with my own aesthetics. However, it is certainly a style that requires a certain size of available land and wouldn't necessarily transfer as successfully in a smaller more contained space as the scale of the topiary would have to change to keep the proportions with the paths and trees which would increase the textural quality of the leaves and potentially off balance the intended contrast between the fine hedging plants and courser herbaceous planting. But for its intended use and location the style fits beautifully and seems like a magical landscape to interact with.