Screening of Thomas Piper's award-winning film Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf

The garden at Vandalorum is created by the Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf (b. 1944). It is his first garden at a Nordic cultural institution. It encompasses trees, shrubs, meadows, and ponds, as well as a 3,500 m² perennial meadow that was planted in the spring of 2023. The perennial meadow contains approximately 26,000 plants of over 100 different species. The plants are chosen based on color, texture, and sculptural quality, to appeal during all four seasons, even after they have finished blooming.

Piet Oudolf has created gardens around the world, including at The High Line in New York, Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, and restaurant Noma in Copenhagen. Oudolf is a pioneer of the movement that has advocated since the 1980s for alternatives to the decorative and strictly maintained gardens that were then dominant. He and his like-minded peers are inspired by natural vegetation and focus on perennials, grasses, and shrubs that have traditionally not been considered garden plants. Oudolf's strong visual expression is rooted in his deep knowledge of plants and is characterized by unique plant combinations, undulating forms, and constantly shifting sightlines.

»I am very pleased to have created this garden at Vandalorum, a garden that interacts with the beautiful nature surrounding the museum. A garden is not a painting that you look at but a dynamic process that is constantly changing and that you can always return to.«

—Piet Oudolf

In collaboration with Deltavormgroep

Thanks to:

Hjalmar Wicander's fund

Bertil & Britt Svensson Foundation for lighting technology

Mats Skogsfors

Vandalorum's Partners: Hamrin, Liljedahl, Svenstig