The landscaped work by Kelly Lebourgeois and George Salameh models the process of the formation of the Hortillonnages landscape. Mainly known for its ecological interest and its beauty, the location is less known for its exploitation by generations of market gardeners. It also appears as immobile whereas it is the result of a balance between two opposing forces, that of nature, namely the Somme and its tributaries, and that of man, peasants who have shaped the place for centuries. Just like the Hortillons gardeners who worked the peat on their land, this project is a model which helps the visitor to understand the anthropological origin of this natural-appearing landscape. Market gardening is dissected in a playful way: identifying different constitutive elements of the landscape and the actions employed for its exploitation, the two landscape designers have reproduced the landscape in the form of a card game. This device invites “player” gardeners to devise combinations of shapes on a vegetable garden transformed into a playing and harvesting space. Half classic cultivation system and half educational approach to a site, the landscape becomes an observation workshop on the relationships between man and the environment.

With the support of the French Ministry of agriculture, food industry and forest – Draaf Nord Pas de Calais Picardie

George Salameh was born in 1978 and is a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage de Versailles and of the American Univervisty of Beirut. He works as a freelance landscape designer, working and teaching in Europe and in the Middle East. Born in 1989, Kelly Lebourgeois is landscape designer. She was graduated the École Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles and has two Master’s degrees.