lucien puech architecture winds path through a garden of damned flowers

lucien puech architecture winds path through a garden of damned flowers
photo © francois flohic

as part of the international garden festival at domaine of chaumont-sur-loire in france, the collaborative team of charlotte trillaud and lucien puech architecture has conceived ‘les fleurs maudites’, translating to ‘the damned flowers’. responding to the event’s theme of ‘the seven deadly sins’, the installation takes visitors around a sinuous path enclosed by chain-link fence among a garden of historically ‘unloved’ and potentially hazardous plants. the collection includes psychotropic, narcotic, and entheogen vegetation, and is separated by the mesh barrier to display their imprisonment and rejection. the labyrinth deck incorporates panels presenting each plant’s history, and terminates at a dead end featuring an exposed thorny tree.

chain-link fence separates the visitors’ path from the ‘damned’ plants
photo © francois flohic

the chain-link fence is supported by steel posts that are interconnected by curving bars, all of which was sculpted by metalworker jean-françois jousse. by introducing a physical barrier between visitors and the plants, the exhibit is an invitation to reflect on the injustice of arbitrary separations in culture. since ancient times, psychotropic, narcotic or entheogen plants have served to, ‘appease wrath of men facing injustice, impotence. they invite one to go beyond immanence towards a promising other-worldliness, where comfort, forgetfulness, or redemption can be reached. however, their fate is not enviable, but rather repressed, prohibited, restricted, and destroyed, while they are themselves victims of human injustice and feed a legitimate anger.’

the sinuous path is made of oak boards
photo © francois flohic

‘the anger of cursed plants used by witches, marginalized, animists, reminds us that plants may also be prohibition-stricken, with examples including: hops for moral reasons, hemp for commercial reasons, henbane or absinthe for their harmful properties, datura for its hallucinogenic power, or mustard for its aphrodisiac properties that invite us to lust and sin.’

visitors may view the forbidden plants and learn about their history on display panels
photo © francois flohic

the annual international garden festival is organized by the domaine of chaumont-sur-loire, and includes 25 temporary gardens created by landscapers, architects, and designers on a 200 to 250 square-meter plots. each year the exhibition accommodates 350,000 visitors, while currently open to the public from april 25 to november 1, 2014.

photo © francois flohic

the hallucinogenic effect of datura metel is ten times stronger than of LSD
photo © francois flohic

papaver somniferum and cannabis sativa
photo © francois flohic

a rusted steel framework supports the chain-link fencing surface
photo © francois flohic

axonometric view of the structural layout

floor plan

section

sketches display the evolution of the path’s chain-link walls

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.