His work is widely published and I have reviewed several books about his projects and planting philosophy. In a press release, Vitra, which is technically headquartered not in Weil am Rhein but just across the Rhine in the Swiss municipality of Birsfelden, noted that Oudolf’s planting provides the framework for the garden while declining to “serve as mere decoration for the surrounding architecture.” As Vitra explained: “Instead, the landscaping complements the buildings and imbues them with new perspectives the garden aims to draw the visitor’s attention away from the buildings and down to the ground, creating a state of inspiring disorientation.When I received a copy of Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset I could not help but wonder if there is anything new to learn about Piet Oudolf’s landscapes. Piet Oudolf (Dejan Jovanovic/Courtesy Vitra) That same approach was also used in his work on New York City’s High Line (with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and James Corner Field Operations), the Lurie Garden at Chicago’s Millennium Park (with Kathryn Gustafson and Shannon Nichol), and the upcoming Oudolf Garden Detroit at Belle Isle Park. Typical of Oudolf-designed landscapes, the garden at the Vitra campus embraces a naturalistic, almost wild appearance achieved through a rigorous, highly precise planning process and the use of self-regenerating species usually ignored in popular garden design in favor of more decorative plants. The Piet Oudolf Garden, which will open to the public at the end of June, will be in full bloom later this summer through early fall. Frank Gehry’s Factory Building (1984) is situated just across Charles Eames Strasse. Howard (installed in 200o) a Jasper Morrison-designed bus stop (2006) Carsten Höller’s Vitra Slide Tower (2014), and smaller structures and installations by the likes of Thomas Schütte, Tobias Rehberge, Renzo Piano Workshop, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and others.

Not too far off is a modular 1953 filling station designed by Jean Prouvé (installed in 2003) a 1975 dome structure created by Charter Industries in collaboration with Thomas C. The garden is in an area straddling the northern and southern ends of Vitra’s sprawling campus between the VitraHaus, a Herzog & de Meuron-designed building that serves as the fabled Swiss modern furniture makers’ flagship store, and Álvaro Siza’s Factory Building. Populated by over 30,000 plants of largely the shrub, grass, and wildflower variety, the roughly 43,000-square-foot garden was first planted in May 2020.