Mediterranean

Mediterranean stands for a climate zone,
but also an attitude to life.

In the early 1990s Henning Breimann created his first Mediterranean garden on Lake Maggiore. That was the start of a great love and passion. Many of his works now rate as showpieces for this special kind of garden design that requires one thing above all: extensive knowledge.

The Mediterranean climate is characterised by dry, hot, sunlit summers and rainy, mild winters. Nowhere else in the world except in deserts is there so much light. This unique climate prevails in the Mediterranean area, in California, South Africa, Chile and the extreme west and east of Australia. In the course of evolution, completely different plant communities have evolved there from those known in the rest of the world. The specific weather conditions and particular quality of the mostly calcareous and heavy soils call for a unique approach.

Immersion in
culture and history.

However, not only knowledge of climate, soils and plants is called for. Anyone who wants to design landscapes that blend homogeneously into the Mediterranean world while still creating new emphases needs to have internalised the culture of these regions.

Henning Breimann travelled widely in Italy, Spain and the South of France back in the 1980s, inhaling, as it were, the gardens, parks and museums, and studying the architecture, the design, the people, the art, the scents, the colours, the light. When he committed himself to landscape architecture, the garden of his house by Lake Maggiore became his plant laboratory. As did a farm in California where he studied his métier in the early 1990s. Naturally, his passion for landscape architecture is not confined to the Mediterranean. But that is the nature of our first great love: it shapes and accompanies us throughout our lives.

From Italy
to California.

From finca to park. In thirty years more than a hundred gardens have been created – in Spain, Italy, California, the South of France and Portugal. They include extensive parks and finca grounds, exclusive private gardens and outdoor areas of select hotels. One reason why local people always greeted the projects and ideas of Henning Breimann, the German, with warm enthusiasm was that he had penetrated deep into the soul of those countries and places. Thanks to their knowledge of conditions in this climate zone the Breimann & Cie team were sometimes able to tread completely new paths in Mediterranean projects.

Knowledge
is the key.

For this, they have amassed a wide range of special knowledge. How does one build a dry-stone wall? How does one build new houses whose grounds with their gigantic, newly planted trees look as if they had been there for 200 years? Which plants bloom when and in which colours? How does one compose their scents and hues? And how does one create a harmonious overall picture where the architecture and the nature of the place are anchored in the culture while still accentuating modern features? The Mediterranean world is full of hidden opportunities for unique paradises.