As one of the only American teams selected for the International Garden Festival in France, the garden features two overlaying systems of pathways which are obscured by a densely planted grove of trees. In a response to the Festival’s literary theme, the garden was inspired by Jorge Luis Borge’s 1941 short story, “The Garden of Forking Paths.”

A traditional path is intertwined with a series of cedar wood planks which form a secondary maze through the grove, beckoning children and adventurous adults to step off the path and venture into a network of narrow passageways. Shou sugi ban, the Japanese process of charring cedar to increase its lifespan, is used to create a stark contrast between the blackened planks and the white gravel floor of the garden.

In support of FORGE Landscape Architecture and RAFT Landscape Architecture.