2018 Edition: Gardens of Thought

Le temple de nos pensées

Like the Trevi Fountain in Italy, into which wishes are thrown in the form of coins, and those Japanese trees that absorb murmured prayers, this garden represents a sacred space in which visitors are invited to deposit their most sincere thoughts, progressively filling up its confines with the “mind fragments” left there.

In this “between two worlds”, walkers come across a wooden structure, a temple that distances them from the outside world, gradually enveloping them and drawing them inside to a luxuriant garden alive with fragrances, colours and plays of light.

At the beginning of the path, they will each have been given a seed, a symbol of their thought in the making, which can be thrown into the midst of this Temple de la pensée (Temple of Thought) to sprout in its turn.

DESIGNERS

Laura LE GAL, Pauline GOFFIN and Olivia FRAPOLLI, State-qualified architects accredited to practise their profession under their own names (ADE – HMONP)

FRANCE

Laura Le Gal pursues an international career, having studied in France and Canada and worked in France, Japan, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. From 2011 to 2012, she worked with the Maison Edouard François agency in Paris, where she took part in several major international competitions. After graduating in 2012, she moved to Kuala Lumpur where she became project manager at ZLG Design, continuing in the post until 2014. While she was there, she oversaw construction of a 50-room hotel and finished by becoming its manager. Upon her return to Europe she joined the Make Architects agency in London, where she was put in charge of large-scale projects. In October 2016, she moved to the Thomas Landemaine Architectes studio in Montpellier where she works as project manager. When she has a spot of free time, she likes to shoulder her backpack and set off in discovery of the world around her. And when she isn’t wearing her backpack, she likes to do things with her hands, sewing being a favourite activity of hers.

Between 2011 and 2015, while she was still a student, Pauline Goffin spent time gaining professional experience with the Patriarche&Co and Splaar agencies in Paris, where she worked on collective housing, public access premises, public amenities and furniture design. She also took part in a good many students’ architecture and design competitions, as well participating in events at such venues as Maison de l’Architecture in Paris, the Centre Jacques Callot and the 2015 Labels VIA furniture design exhibition. In 2015, newly qualified, Pauline left the grey skies of Paris behind her for the sun and melodic accents of the South of France, where she joined the TLA agency as architect/project manager before obtaining the HMNOP qualification (accrediting her to practise her profession under her own name) in 2016 and started on personal projects alongside her work at the agency. When her mind is not bubbling over under a construction-site helmet, she slips on her trainers and takes off across the city for a spot of exercise. And when she’s not keeping her feet occupied, it’s her hands that take over, appropriating pencils, paintbrushes, writer’s pen, camera, knitting needles, cooking spatula, drill or hairdresser’s scissors to try their luck at (more or less successful!) creative experiments.

A young State-qualified architect currently training for accreditation to practise her profession under her own name (HMONP), Olivia Frapolli enrolled at Montpelier’s School of Architecture in 2011 after spending two years studying political science. Between 2012 and 2013, she worked for Atelier AA and CoO Architectes, going on to join a startup team in 2014 because she wanted to take part in an entrepreneurial adventure and learn more about management and marketing. While in the first year of her Master’s degree programme, she went round schools raising lower secondary students’ awareness of architecture under the auspices of the département of Hérault’s Architecture, Urban Planning and Environment Council (CAUE), and collaborated with them on the design of an exhibition pavilion. She joined the Thomas Landemaine Architectes agency in June 2015 as architect and communication officer. Alongside her more cerebral activities, she also sets her hand to smelting and logging.