We interviewed Landscape Architect Claude Cormier and captured a glimpse of what happens when you mix Botany (plant-breeding), Art, and the powerful medium of Landscape Architecture. Cormier’s work explores the constructed, artificial nature of design and adds his unique approach to our society, dominated by media and visual culture. Cormier’s projects include Lipstick Forest in Montreal, Blue Tree in Sonoma, Blue Forest at Nissan in Detroit, the Sciences campus at Université du Québec à Montréal, and an urban beach on the Toronto waterfront. JGB

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When did you decide to become a designer?
I first began my education studying Agronomy (Plant Sciences) and completed my degree to become a plant breeder. My intent was to create a new flower. Along the way I made a transition to Landscape Architecture.

Blue Stick Garden shows blue from one perspective, and pink from the other.

Where do you do most of your design work?
Mostly in my head and in the office depending of the project. I always bring projects with me, everywhere I go. In fact, not being in the office stimulates my mind and ideas often come from elsewhere, not from Architecture magazines either... The work featured in magazines may stimulate and reinforce good ideas, but it’s not where you find them.

Where, or from what, do you get inspiration for your work?
Visual art and advertising are an amazing source of inspiration. I don’t watch TV and in fact, I don’t own a TV. I am rather inspired by all kind of cultures and by all the visual imagery that surrounds us. I love publicity and the art of advertising. Effective messages are delivered without words. We (Landscape Architects) do that as well, constructing meaningful experiences and images. Our constructed Landscapes imbed some meaning, all our projects seem to have this commonality. However I’m not really a big nature fan…

Not a big fan of nature? What do mean? Please tell us more…
Nature is certainly not my source of inspiration. I like to define our work simply by saying that what we do is artificial but not fake! Nowadays, we are surrounded by so much fakeness. A lot of ’things’ pretend to be real and/or natural when they are actually all made up… fake. I would rather be honest and express the constructed nature of our landscape. There are aspects of authenticity that operate within the design process; the notion of meaning, context, symbolism and many other dimensions, attached to the site, to the program, to the client and to the commission itself. It’s all this interplay that is real and authentic. There is no fakeness about it. It’s a very subtle nuance but it is almost always present in all of our projects. So instead of borrowing and copying from nature - I prefer to cross breed it with culture.

Trees cross-bred with Lipstick in Lipstick Forest.

As an example:
The Blue Forest, suspended at the Nissan Creative Design Studio in Detroit is a garden situated within an enclosed exterior courtyard, without any exterior views, only open to the sky. The space was programmed for contemplation, events, receptions, car displays, etc. We proposed a suspended artificial forest canopy that would float over the entire courtyard. The branch ends, attached with cables on either side of the building, allow the wind to create light movement, transforming then into an over-scaled wind chime. Furthermore, all the fiberglass branches are painted the same blue hue as the sky. Sometimes they blend perfectly with the sky and some other time they contrast with it. The blue branches, then, act as light barometer against the sky. They register the subtle nuances of light fluctuation throughout the year. The branches are also casting strong shadow patterns, which are constantly moving and changing, onto the ground plane. This garden may be artificial by its nature but undeniably addresses many natural phenomena that surround us (light, shadows and wind) and this is certainly not fake.


The Blue Forest, Nissan Creative Design Studio.

What is your favorite part of the design process and why?
The beginning of a project is my favorite part in the process. It’s connecting all the dots, starting from design problems to all issues embedded on a project site. You have to create a narrative, to build a story that will give shape to the project. You have to define a design strategy in which a clear idea and intention that will remain intact throughout the project. I believe that all projects should be explained in a simple manner even though they are complex.

For example, let’s take the transformation of the Maple Leaf Quays on the Toronto Waterfront into an urban beach. All the complexity was taken into consideration from the beginning; everything was directed to allow people to touch and feel the water of Lake Ontario. Basically, the purpose was to reinforce the existing synergy so specific to Toronto and Lake Ontario. The intention was to transform the site into a beach with an urban quality, to alter the landscape typology of a beach – sun, shade, water, dunes, sand, grasses, umbrellas, weeping willows, etc – into an image that isn’t so nostalgic and that would create a strong singular icon. Invent something new that does not exist onto the waterfront and that would still be very TORONTO in its experience. Once this was defined, hundreds of options were possible, but the initial idea remained very clear and site driven. We called the beach “HTO”

Pergola - Le Havre, France.

How would you label/categorize your work?
Contemporary Landscape Architecture.

Do you have a signature style? If yes, what are the hallmarks of your style?
My signature is in the singularity found in each of my projects; simplicity, solving complexity, in a singular way.

Who are your favorite designers and/or architects?
Too many to mention. Generally, I like audacity, and courage of voices. The ones who break the rules, the non-conformist, still performing and answering programs, to satisfy the community process while opening completely new perspectives. Ones that are challenging preconceived expectations.

What item (PC, pen, etc) can you not do without when you are designing?
Scotch tape, Xerox machine. Personally I don’t use a computer to draw, although everybody in my office does. I’m old fashioned. For me, the computer is only a tool.

What's next?
Just completed the artificial forest at the Creative Design Studio for Nissan in Detroit, and will complete construction, next Spring, of the urban beach on the Toronto Waterfront (in collaboration with Janet Rosenberg + Associates and Hariri Pontarini architects). Working on the public landscape of the new Four Seasons Hotel, downtown Toronto, ‘Ilot Voyageur’ – Université du Quebec à Montreal – a new high end residential tower on 300 Front Street, Toronto and Evergreen at the Brickworks in Toronto.

Toronto Waterfront.

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VITAL STATS
Full name: Claude Cormier
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Size of team: 6 Landscape architects
In business since: 1995
Claim to fame projects: I would say those 3 classic projects: Blue Stick Garden that has been traveling (Métis, Toronto, Somerset-UK, Chicago and Montreal), the Blue Tree at Cornerstone Gardens in Sonama, California, and the Lipstick Forest – a winter garden at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal.

MEDIA FAVES:
Favorite website(s): Marius Watz, Artist
What music is on your iPod or radio? No I-pod. No music at home. Like electronic music and classical at work.
Your favorite magazine(s): The new Dam magazine in Brussels
Last or current book you are reading: Do not read many books. I read visual culture.
Last movie you saw: Little Miss Sunshine