“A garden that is not beautiful in winter is not a beautiful garden,” haid Jacques Wirtz.
The most iconic aspect of the Wirtz style is his unconventional and sculptural use of clipped hedges. When Wirtz moved into his current house, he inherited a row of overgrown boxwoods that lined a walk. Too spindly to be trimmed into a rectilinear form, Wirtz followed the natural contours of the branching, creating a pillowy, cloud-like effect. It is this attention to natural form that gives Wirtz’s work its creative edge.
His breakthrough international project was after being commissioned to design the garden for the Belgian pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka. His travels to Japan also provided him with an advanced horticultural education in Japanese gardens, which are known for their precision, and helped influence his gardening.
His reputation grew even more when he won a design contest for the redesigned Jardin du Carrousel, perhaps his largest public commission which links the Louvre to the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, a long-running project which started in 1990 and was completed in 2004. President Mitterrand also asked him to redesign the gardens at the Élysée Palace (1992).
In addition to many small and large gardens for industrial or domestic settings, his firm has designed gardens in Belgium at Cogels Park in Schoten (1977), the campus of Antwerp University (1978), Bremweide Park in Antwerp (1978), for the Belgian headquarters of BMW at Bornemat (1985), a garden running down the centre of Albert II Boulevard in Brussels (1992), and gardens at the Château De Groote Mot in Borgloon (1994), part of the garden at Hex Castle in Heers (1995), and the garden at the Château de Vinderhoute (1997); in Luxembourg, for the Banque de Luxembourg (1996) and Banque Générale du Luxembourg (1997); and the renovated garden at Alnwick Castle (2001) where he included a labyrinth with 500 bamboo plants, a rose garden with 3,000 roses in 180 varieties. Other works were Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf in England.
His breakthrough international project was after being commissioned to design the garden for the Belgian pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka. His travels to Japan also provided him with an advanced horticultural education in Japanese gardens, which are known for their precision, and helped influence his gardening.
His reputation grew even more when he won a design contest for the redesigned Jardin du Carrousel, perhaps his largest public commission which links the Louvre to the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, a long-running project which started in 1990 and was completed in 2004. President Mitterrand also asked him to redesign the gardens at the Élysée Palace (1992).
In addition to many small and large gardens for industrial or domestic settings, his firm has designed gardens in Belgium at Cogels Park in Schoten (1977), the campus of Antwerp University (1978), Bremweide Park in Antwerp (1978), for the Belgian headquarters of BMW at Bornemat (1985), a garden running down the centre of Albert II Boulevard in Brussels (1992), and gardens at the Château De Groote Mot in Borgloon (1994), part of the garden at Hex Castle in Heers (1995), and the garden at the Château de Vinderhoute (1997); in Luxembourg, for the Banque de Luxembourg (1996) and Banque Générale du Luxembourg (1997); and the renovated garden at Alnwick Castle (2001) where he included a labyrinth with 500 bamboo plants, a rose garden with 3,000 roses in 180 varieties. Other works were Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf in England.
