The 27th edition of the International Garden Festival is now open to the public, bringing nearly 30 contemporary gardens to the site at Reford Gardens until October 4, 2026.
Under the theme Mapping Sensitivity, artistic director Ève De Garie-Lamanque invited designers from diverse backgrounds to create gardens through a sensitive, fundamentally inclusive and relational approach.
Among the 204 project proposals submitted by designers from 29 countries, five were selected. Almost 30 contemporary gardens are featured on site in this year’s edition.
“This 27th edition once again confirms the unique place the International Garden Festival occupies on the contemporary creative scene. Receiving 204 submissions from 29 countries is a testament to the Festival’s international reach and the interest it generates among creators from around the world,” said Alexander Reford, co-founder and director of the International Garden Festival. “What particularly delights us, however, is seeing these projects come to life and transform throughout the summer. As the plants grow, materials evolve and the light changes, the gardens reveal themselves differently with each visit. It is truly a joy to see visitors of all ages be surprised, play, contemplate, touch and inhabit these creations. It is this meeting of artistic excellence, experimentation and the pleasure of discovery that has defined the Festival’s remarkable character for the past 27 years.”
In the wake of the triennial thematic cycle initiated a year ago, Mapping Sensitivity pursues an ongoing reflection on the poetics of space, and how we relate to our physical surroundings as well as the world. Whereas Borders focused on the challenges of organizing and representing geographic space, foregrounding geopolitical concerns, the theme of the 27th edition takes le tournant sensible [the sensitive turn].
It draws its inspiration from sensitive mapping, which traces the shared representations of a space that is described, lived, and felt. It takes into account users’ real experience of a given space and the emotional relationship that they develop with it, considering cultural, phenomenological, experiential, cognitive and contextual factors.
The visual identity for the current thematic cycle (2025-27) has been entrusted to bureau60a, an independent design studio based in Québec, Canada. The themes of Borders and Mapping Sensitivity proved to be inspiring for Simon Guibord and Rachel Monnier. They drew inspiration from cartographic sciences, particularly modern cartographic language and symbols. They also favoured a biocentric approach, alluding to the dispersion and deposition of pollen through their design.
The call for submissions for the 28th edition of the Festival in 2027 will be released on September 2, 2026.
The winning projects and designers of this year’s edition include the following.
Again, a Garden by Hugh Taylor, Manitoba, Canada + United States
Again, a Garden is a walled garden, a pavilion built from cut fallen logs sandwiched between aluminium plates within which native pollinator species are planted. It traces the flows of life in the garden and its nearby environment. Even as it provides moments for rest and reflection, the garden encourages visitors to become aware of their surroundings as a cycle in which decay and life are understood as integral parts of a single system.
Frame by Ulli Heckmann, Germany + the Netherlands
Frame is an architectural reflection on how we perceive both our environment and ourselves in a given situation. The sculptural object provides curated views and different levels of intimacy to show the complexity of spatial experience and to highlight our viewpoint as the basis of our perception. By inviting us to discover what is not visible, Frame facilitates experimentation with architectural space, as well as body and environmental awareness.
Mentho-artemision by Etienne Lapleau, France
Like a sensitive map, Mentho-artemision reconstructs, in a confined space, contrasting sensations usually perceived at the landscape scale. By bringing together the distinct environments in which mint and mugwort grow, the garden condenses sensory perceptions: visitors feel the transitions from dry to humid through sight, smell, and touch.
Tainai-Meguri by Measured Architecture + Tamotsu Tongu, Kumpei Wakino, British Columbia, Canada
Tainai-Meguri envisions this digital space as a cave made tangible by a sweeping arbour. A convergence of nature, water, and light brings about a return to origin – a meditative journey in which inner and outer worlds dissolve. This project brings together three celebrated designers from British Columbia, Canada: architect Clinton Cuddington, of Measured Architecture, who leads the team; master landscape designer Tamotsu Tongu, of Toko Garden Design; and landscape designer Kumpei Wakino, of Kunon Landscape & Design. Tongu and Wakino represent two generations of landscape designers who have brought their knowledge, skills, and craftsmanship from Japan to Canada to create gardens that adapt the sensibilities of Japanese landscape tradition to the context and climate of Canada’s West Coast. Cuddington’s wealth of experience creating award-winning buildings within these landscapes has readied him to convene and support this interdisciplinary design team.
Worm’s Eye by Ellen Harris, United States
The anthropologist and political scientist James C. Scott identified the cartographic “view from above” as the position from which large-scale entities such as modern states and multinational corporations impose conditions of legibility on the subjects and territories under their control. Worm’s Eye imagines a “camouflage architecture” that frustrates this kind of top-down legibility and encourages visitors to have a different understanding of place: intimate, local, and necessarily partial.
Special Project: Pousses de son by Tom Jacques, Québec, Canada
Here, this experimental garden places sound at the heart of the experience. Through the acoustics of its environment, it seeks to place the visitor in a listening mode, gently drawing them into the world of the attentive walker and shaping their perception of the surrounding landscape. Tom Jacques is a sound artist originally from and based in Rimouski, the lower St. Lawrence in Québec, and is recognized for his work as a composer of contemporary and experimental music, an improviser, and a performer in several ensembles, including Bascaille, T.J.J.H., and the GGRIL. His practice also includes a significant focus on experimental instrument-making, through which he designs sound devices and transforms conventional musical instruments for new sonic possibilities and manipulation.
