Japanese Influence - Belgian Style

 

East meets West at an entrepreneur’s historic estate in the Belgian countryside, with interior design by Axel Vervoordt and grounds by landscape firm Wirtz International. Via Architectural Digest.

Growing up in Belgium (in my early years) and being exposed to the work of both Axel Vervoordt and Jacques Wirtz on a regular basis, I never realized the impact it would have on me as an adult, and how staying in beautiful places designed by these two men had profoundly influenced my sense of style. Any time I see the work of Jacques Wirtz - for example - the open and minimal landscapes bring me back to the summers spent in my grandmother's garden amongst others.  I just love the pictures because I read images better than I read text, but you can read the whole article here.

Photography by Jean-Pierre Gabriel

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/decor/2011-08/axel-vervoordt-wirtz-international-belgian-estate-article

http://www.axel-vervoordt.com/
http://www.wirtznv.be/en/intro/

Daniel Ost - Garden Design

Daniel Ost - most famous for his incredible sculptural flower arrangements - is now venturing into garden design. Above are some pictures of the green spaces he designed for the DE UIL house (previously blogged about here).

http://www.danielost.be/

Stijn Cornilly Landscape

Stijn Cornilly is a Belgian landscaper, creative in the design and construction of stylish, low maintenance gardens.

“An important specialization of our green business is bringing structure and strength in the garden. Boxwood, holly and yew are ideally suited as basic elements for a good garden design. They are a permanent fixture in the garden. A fixed value of remaining strength and decorative green opposite example, the colors of seasonal flowers and plants.” explains Styn Cornilly on his website.

This post via http://belgianpearls.blogspot.com/

Ronald van der Hilst - Part 3 (landscapes)

"For me, design is a language. When I design gardens, I ‘translate’ what the client puts forward and requests into a garden that fits like a custom-made suit - where I have shaped the style, the characteristics, and the forms into a single story, a harmonic whole. The lines of force form a stage for the poetry of the garden: the incidence of light, moments of time, the seasons, scents, and so on. So many elements constantly play a role in the garden ... every day of the year. Therefore, the garden should be arranged so as to radiate every day of the year! Design begins (for me ) with language: I start by writing a text in which I crystallize for the client and myself what the lines of force will be. That is the concept."

This post and more @ http://www.ronaldvanderhilst.com/

Ronald van der Hilst - Part 2 (planters)

This post & more via http://www.ronaldvanderhilst.com/

Ronald van der Hilst - Part 1 (Vases)

"The crystal tulip vase 'Bulbe' that I designed in 2005 for Val Saint Lambert, is to me proof of a new path that I have chosen. The open-mindedness in which I've made this design for Val Saint Lambert inspires me and gives me new energy for product designs as well as for the garden and landscape designs."

This post via http://www.ronaldvanderhilst.com/

Piet Blanckaert - Sublime Landscape Architect

Loving the minimalist style of Belgian Landscape Architect Piet Blanckaert. From the largest majestic spaces to the tiniest ... let the images speak for themselves ... you can see more at http://www.blanckaert.com/

Daniel Ost - Floral Artist

Daniel Ost, born in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium in 1955, has been one of the world’s most highly regarded ‘florists’ since the 1980s.

The extraordinary creativity of his works justifies his being described as a floral artist. His arrangements consist of flowers, but also leaves, branches and fruits, which interact with the environment, whether a mist-covered pond, a contemporary object or a historic house. Daniel Ost crosses the world from west to east, taking the care to capture permanently on film these unique moments characterizing each of his creations.

Even though Daniel Ost’s gardens are to date seen as all too rare interludes in his work, they have already captured people’s imagination. There has been many publications featuring the best-known of these gardens, which are located in Belgium.

Faced with the ephemeral in his ‘plant expressions’, Daniel Ost establishes through gardens a new relationship with plants and nature, that of a living and evolutionary work. Conceived as a dialogue between architecture and the organic, his gardens do not seek to be an additional offshoot of the buildings or a structuring of the outside area. Right from the design stage, they reflect his intentions: to fit the building and its exterior into their environment by working on the plant species in the immediate vicinity, in the form of plant mannerism.

More at http://www.danielost.be/

This post from Ine Dehandschutter http://www.behive.be/art/2007/05/daniel_ost.html