Albert Kahn Gardens

Albert Kahn Gardens

Created from 1895 onwards by the banker Albert Kahn, the gardens of Boulogne-Billancourt set scenes borrowed from several countries side by side across four hectares: a Japanese garden and its wooden bridge, a French orchard and rose garden, a blue forest of spruces, and the glasshouses of the winter garden.

The lighting follows that division rather than smoothing it over. The Japanese garden is held in a deep blue that climbs into the canopy, with the low planting turning green at ground level; the bridge and its pebble banks tip into a saturated red, the bamboo grove staying green right beside them. The glasshouses are lit from within: the canopy of glass becomes a lantern set at the end of the orchard. From one scene to the next, the colour changes as the country does.