Earthly delights

Piet Oudolf’s garden for Vitra HQ is a natural wonder

- TILLY MACALISTER-SMITH

For many of us, the last year has involved long stretches of domestic confinement. We now crave gardens, fresh air, horizons afforded by wide open spaces. As if predicting this collective ache, a new Vitra commission has flowered this June: a lush 4,000 sq m perennial garden, designed by renowned Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf for the company’s headquarters in the southern German town of Weil am Rhein.

The Vitra Campus is a stone’s throw from the Dreiländereck, where the borders of Germany, France and Switzerland meet. It’s a corner of Europe rich with art and design institutional muscle, with Fondation Beyeler, Museum Tinguely and Art Basel (when in session) all less than a 15-minute drive away. Buildings on the campus include a fire station by Zaha Hadid, a Jasper Morrison bus stop, a viewing tower with a slide by Carsten Höller, a petrol station by Jean Prouvé, a geodesic dome by Richard Buckminster Fuller, and a small cabin by Renzo Piano. VitraHaus – the flagship store that Oudolf ’s garden surrounds – was designed and built by Herzog & de Meuron in 2010 (W*133). The clean, exacting lines and modern fabrications of the architecture both contrast with and complement Oudolf ’s landscaping – his complex planting techniques favour texture and structure over frothy blooms, creating year-round ambience so natural as to appear free of human intervention.