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TRENDS

From the catwalk to the street, from horological complications to extravagant jewellery, from designers in the spotlight to the new modes of transport, our Trends pages illustrate the latest in lifestyle. These cleanly-designed, well-illustrated pages take a sideways look to decipher major shifts in society as they happen, offering a comprehensive, avant-gardist view of today's zeitgeist.
COTE shows you the most complex details with text and pictures.

April 2021

Green life

While travel is still restricted, gardens and outdoor spaces have, more than ever, become havens of escape... So care is taken to nurture, plant and sometimes even totally rethink these living spaces that have become so essential.

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Un projet signé Brigitte Dematteis. Le couloir de nage est la tendance du moment en matière de piscines. Autour, ce sont les plantes méditerranéennes et les sujets persistants qui viennent peaufiner le décor. Grâce à ces essences qui ne perdent pas leurs feuilles, on apprécie son jardin à toutes les saisons. 
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Un Jardin dans l’Estérel (Agence Faragou) : la villa bénéficie d’un écrin végétal naturel et d’une ouverture sur la mer. Le site est habité par de magnifiques chênes-lièges et des pins, une végétation typique du bassin méditerranéen de type maquis.
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Jessica Sbaraglia décline de véritables jardins suspendus sur les toits de la Principauté de Monaco où l’on retrouve différents potagers colorés.

Gardens and terraces are places of well-being, conceived as an additional living room where you can enjoy a certain amount of freedom. A trend confirmed by landscape designer César Faragou, director of the eponymous agency: "Garden owners are primarily looking for a convivial, festive, vibrant living space that’s an extension of the home and consistent with the local identity". In the context of his numerous projects, this architect, urban planner, and landscape professional from Nice sets store by the organised side of vegetation as well as the uncontrolled. One example is the Un Jardin dans l'Estérel project, a villa benefiting from a natural green setting and opening onto the sea. A site inhabited by imposing cork oaks and pines, combined with Mediterranean maquis vegetation such as strawberry trees, heather, juniper, rosemary, and myrtle, well adapted to the climate and the siliceous soil.

The notion of pleasure

As landscape architect Brigitte Dematteis says, "when we talk about 'extending your interior', the idea is to be able to enjoy contemplating your garden from your living room or kitchen all year round. The choice and placement of plants to achieve this is a specific task. In the South of France, we are talking about Mediterranean plants and evergreens. Species that don’t lose their leaves seasonally. Of course, a garden will always be more beautiful in full bloom. But in winter, it’s essential to see something other than bare branches or trees covered to protect them against the frost". The gardening expert notes another significant development: "The younger generations want to take ownership of their garden and spend time in it. My last few sites were entrusted to me by couples aged 35-40".

Distinctively designed

This outdoor life is organised around several distinct spaces ranging from a terrace to a summer kitchen, swimming pool, convivial dining room and kitchen garden. Swimming lengths in the shade of your olive trees is a luxury you always dreamed of, but pools that look like water parks are a thing of the past. The swimming pool trend is the swimming corridor in a design spirit, surrounded by a large lawn and some sunbathing. An uncluttered environment. And in terms of colour? "Before, we were being asked for lagoon blue, but now the emphasis is on a deeper blue, turquoise, water green. You think about the colour of your swimming pool as you would the colour of the tiles in your house," notes Brigitte Dematteis. "Landscaping a garden appeals to the emotions. It's essential to play with light and shadows, with space, and compose with the green palette nature offers us. Making it possible to broaden the space or create a perspective".Lastly, city dwellers are not left behind. You don't need several hectares of land to enjoy "green therapy". Vegetable gardens have become very fashionable, and harvesting your produce is hugely popular with a generation short on greenery. "Opt for strawberries, cherry tomatoes, aromatic plants on a terrace… in combination with other plants to achieve an aesthetic result", concludes Brigitte Dematteis. Gardens promise genuine pleasure, whether you are green-fingered or not.

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