Passignano sul Trasimeno (Perugia), Umbria. 2001-2004

Originally conceived to accompany an hotel de charme overlooking Lake Trasimeno, the garden of Passignano draws from elements typical Italian formal garden but reworks them in a way more appropriate to English landscape gardens so as to open the view to the panorama.

To the east, a water blade draws the eye toward the holm oak wood. To the west, a cross-shaped vegetable garden with the prerequisite sundial at its centre leads to a double pergola and, further on, to another iron hemisphere serving as a belvedere in the southern corner. Still, it is the garden as a whole that plays perspectives and volumes, with five rows of lavender dialoguing with the trees, pergolas, and the preexisting olive grove.