The city as a landscape.

One day in June 1997, Lausanne woke up in the garden. The idea for Lausanne Jardins was born from the collective intuition of a group of friends from very different backgrounds in the autumn of 1994. They formulated it in simple and straightforward propositions: to show the art of contemporary gardening through temporary installations produced in a variety of urban locations, thereby revealing the so-far-ignored diversity of the urban environment, and consider the city as a landscape.

"To address the urban garden, in other words the quality of life in the city, the event, based on a competition of the highest level, had to speak a language common to all. The tone and method, once found, were re-used and perfected from one edition to the next. Considering the city with delight, like a bottomless reservoir of possibilities and surprises was, to my mind, the fundamental contribution of Lausanne Jardins."

Lorette Coen, founder and curator of Lausanne Jardins 1997 and 2000

In 2014: Landing, inspired by randomness, "airdropped" gardens into the hyper-centre of Lausanne;

In 2009: Jardins Dessus-dessous took visitors along an overland route that followed the passage of the new underground (M2) beneath;

In 2004: Jardins de passages covered a series of four railway hubs in the fossil valley of the Flon, from Place de l’Europe to Renens station;

In 2000: Jardins la ville unfolded over four key areas, the cemetery in Bois-de-Vaux, the Montriond hill, the Montbenon esplanade and the Flon neighbourhood;

In 1997: Jardins faisant presented the historical centre and its relationship with the lake along the route of Lausanne’s "La Ficelle" underground.