Visite Guidée – Endymion

Endymion is a garden that brings natural forms back into the city: plants, animals, water, fire, and wind. The design of the garden is based on the ways in which nature comes into contact with the urban environment. The idea for the installation was born from the desire to create a place capable of transmitting an experience that engages multiple senses. The outcome we aim for is an installation composed of essential elements and minimal interventions.

THE GARDEN. In the context of the climate crisis, new periods of drought will gradually lead to the creation of dry gardens. Endymion acts as a wake-up call, highlighting an alternative way of managing resources and planting. It questions the status of territory as well as the relationships that architecture and dwelling maintain with nature, landscape, and the city.The garden is conceived as a constellation of plants, arranged heterogeneously through specific communities or families of species, which, when planted together, contribute to the overall balance of the garden while requiring little maintenance. The study and choice of plants arise from the need to maintain a coherent tonal palette that works both by day and by night.Three objects accompany and complete Endymion’s planted garden, which can also be reinterpreted as an allegory of the Greek myth of humanity’s quest for the ideal garden. Each object, conceived in relation to the history of the site, represents a different way of inhabiting space.

I. FLAG. Studio SNCDA designed a monumental flag to transform the former parade ground into an “urban square” and to signal the presence of the garden more clearly. With its distinctive, silvery material, the flag evokes molten metal and amplifies the luminous presence of the garden.

II. CHIMNEY. Fire is a warm shelter around which one can gather, close to the embers. Watching the flames creates new moments of exchange and collective reverie.

III. FOUNTAIN. On rainy days, water runs down a sloping pipe and collects in a basin. Its surface reflects the surrounding landscape, serving both as a watering point and as a playful space.