GABRIEL GUÉVRÉKIAN Jardin triangulaire, 1926-1927

Emaux de Briare
Restauré en 1989

When commissioned to design the garden in 1926, Gabriel Guévrékian, a collaborator of Robert Mallet-Stevens, was a young architect of Armenian origin. After growing up in Tehran, he studied architecture in Vienna before settling in Paris in 1921. This rich cultural background deeply shaped the architect, making him particularly receptive to the experiments of the Parisian avant-garde.

At the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, he presented the much-noticed Garden of Water and Light. Designed on a sloping triangular plot, Guévrékian developed the triangular motif through pools, plantings and opaque glass screens, in a composition where painted and vegetal colours, light and reflections produced constantly changing visual effects.

A passionate gardener, Charles de Noailles noticed this modern proposal and commissioned the architect to design a plot extending from the vaulted salon, below the villa’s forecourt. In response, Guévrékian drew on the many artistic references that had shaped his career.

Several historians have highlighted similarities between its composition and the Persian garden, characterised by enclosed spaces, rigorous geometry, the symbolic importance of water and a slope favouring perspective towards architecture. Here, however, the principle is reversed: sightlines converge towards the open angle of the triangle, framing Jacques Lipchitz’s sculpture La Joie de Vivre, mounted on a motorised pedestal, and the sea beyond.

The term “Cubist” has often been used to describe the garden because of its geometric composition. This reading is nevertheless reductive: its relationship to Cubism lies above all in the multiplicity of viewpoints it offers. Changes in level, intersecting planes and visual breaks create a spatial tension that disorients the visitor and alters the perception of space. The absence of a predefined route encourages visitors to experience the garden visually before exploring it physically.

Another parallel can be drawn with the work of Sonia and Robert Delaunay. Based on the optical theory of simultaneous colour contrast, they explored variations in perception produced by the juxtaposition of contrasting colours in order to convey the dynamism and movement of modern life.

Drawing on these various artistic influences, Guévrékian created a garden of tensions: between the mineral and the vegetal, between planes, colours, viewpoints and the perception of architecture.

Unlike the villa’s other outdoor spaces, intended for reception, rest or strolling, this garden has above all a decorative function, designed to transform the perception of architecture. Through its prow-like form, it nevertheless remains fully integrated into the composition of the villa, anchoring it within its site while directing the gaze and shaping perspective.

A CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION OF THE TRIANGULAR GARDEN —
2026 LANDSCAPE AND NURSERIES
DESIGNED BY GUYOMAR

Our interpretation holds true to three allegiances: Allegiance to Guévrékian’s framework: his geometry is not rewritten, it is inhabited, the chequerboard remains the score, our plants its living matter.

Allegiance to the Villa’s history: the Triangular garden recovers its original function, to serve as a laboratory of forms, materials and light, augmented by a new dimension, that of scent.

Allegiance to the territory: Hyères, a land of acclimatisation since the nineteenth century, was that of Charles de Noailles, introducer of species. Our selection of plants, all cultivated within our nursery, follows in his lineage.

Ancrage does not celebrate a provenance — it celebrates the bond between beauty, diversity and survival.

Agapanthus — Everlastingflower — Pacific chrysanthemum — Bulbine — Santolina — Savory.
Six species, six strategies in the face of drought, transformed into six optical materials: the silver of felted foliage reflects sunlight, its dark lacquer concentrates it, its down diffuses it. Light is no longer entrusted to mosaic alone, but to living matter, matter that evolves, breathes and exhales.

Ancrage thus reaffirms the indissoluble bond between avant-garde architecture and its environment, and sets against the fragility of a singular flora the resilience of a plant palette born of constraint.

Marion & Florent Guyomar
Design, planting, and execution provided to Villa Noailles as part of a skills-based sponsorship by GUYOMAR PAYSAGE & PÉPINIÈRES – for three generations