Louis Benech

Louis Benech (born February 16, 1957) is a French gardener, landscaper, and landscape architect. He is sometimes called "France's greatest living landscape designer."

Education and early career Benech was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine. During the summers from 1970 to 1976 he learned English and worked as a gardener in a park in Perthshire, Scotland. During the summer of 1977 he traveled to the United States, collected seeds across North America, and visited the Arnold Arboretum. and worked there for a year and a half. In 1985 he decided to abandon the practice of law and become a gardener and landscaper, starting his own company in Paris. By 1987 Benech gained a significant reputation. at the Piencourt stud farm, which led to him finding several other clients, including Marie-Hélène de Rothschild, Anne d'Ornano, and Pierre Bergé for the gardens of in Benerville-sur-Mer. The Tuileries project spread over ten years and brought recognition with multiple requests from wealthy garden owners.

Besides the Tuileries Garden, some of the best examples of landscaping done by Benech are at the Water Theater Grove in the Palace of Versailles, the Élysée Palace Gardens in Paris, the rose garden of in Pavlovsk Park, Saint Petersburg, and the Gardens of the Achilleion Palace in Corfu. Some of the other many already established gardens, that Benech has worked on include the Quai d'Orsay, the estate of Courson, the quadrilateral (main square) of France's National Archives, and the Hauteville House. At the beginning of the 2010s, he worked on the partial renovation of the park of domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire and a diagnosis on the Château de Maisons-Laffitte.

In 2002 he created an outstanding, non-irrigated garden in Greece.

By the beginning of the 2020s, Benech had designed and carried out with his Parisian team more than 500 public and private park and garden projects. He also completed projects for institutions such as Axa (Hôtel de la Vaupalière in Paris in 2000), Suez (former Hôtel Suchet in Paris in 2001), the gardens of belonging to the general council of Moselle, in Seoul in 2006; Ateliers de Pantin, since 2008).

Benech's approach to garden design Benech emphasizes that he began as a gardener with an extensive, practical knowledge of plants. According to Benech, French garden owners focus on a garden's design rather than the garden's individual plants, while English garden owners focus more on the plants chosen and the variety of cultivars. He tries to adapt the garden to the surrounding landscape and the house near the garden. He takes into account what the garden's owners want and need and then focuses on economical and maintenance issues more than garden art.

With an eclectic style, Louis Benech had a father who worked as an architect,

Louis Benech was the companion of French fashion designer Christian Louboutin from about 1997 to about 2016. The two divided their time between homes in various places, including France, Egypt, and the Maldives.

Selected projects

Prés du Goualoup (a garden park) of Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (2011–2012) Landscaped walk through the gardens of the quadrilateral (main square) of the Archives Nationales of Paris (2011) Garden of the Hotel in Paris (2009–2010) Garden of the Quinta da Romaneira hotel (Portugal) (2007) Garden of Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans (2009–2010) (U.S.A.) Gardens of the Sun and Clouds of Château de Villandry (2007–2008) Garden of the Dar Ahlam hotel, Ouarzazate (2004) of the National Museum of Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) (1992–1995) (partially destroyed by fire in 2018) Garden of Europe of Futuroscope in Poitiers (1990–1992) Redevelopment of the Tuileries Garden in Paris (collaborative work, 1990–2000, and advice since 2007) Piencourt Garden in Cormeilles, Eure (1985–1990) Rose garden of the in Vimoutiers The garden of the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot in Langres (2012) Roof terrace in New York in 2013 for Diane von Fürstenberg Member of the Royal Horticultural Society Member of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners, City of London Member of the International Dendrology Society (1987) Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (2005) Member of Le Conseil national des parcs et jardins (CNPJ), Ministère de la Culture (2007–2013) Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker (winter 2015)