Patrick Blanc, an artist with a green thumb, has created dozens of his admired botanical tapestries in public and private spaces around the world, including the Marithé & François Girbaud boutique in Manhattan; the Jean Nouvel-designed Quai Branly Museum in Paris; the aquarium in Genoa; the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok; and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan. In this luscious, oversize, all-color book, he explains how to create plant walls using more than one thousand plants, drawing on his observation of natural milieus, his technique of growing on vertical surfaces, his savoir faire, and his passion for plants.
Patrick Blanc has been a scientist at CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) since 1982; he won the French Society Award for Botany in 1993. He lives in Paris.
Preface by Jean Nouvel
Introduction
1Natural habitats
Waterfalls
Riverbanks
Seeping rocks
Cliffs and karstic outcrops
Inselbergs and rocky outcrops
Caves and dark glens
Forest understory
Slopes
Epiphytes
2The impact of plants on architecture
From superficial impact to overall destruction
Superficial impact
Hazardous impact
Destructive impact
3 The vertical garden
From the idea to the cocept
Structure, installation and maintenance
Works