With the return of good weather, green ideas are budding in Quebec. In Montreal, the young team of Nouveaux Voisins cultivates landscape art using wild gardens, reminiscent of meadows and undergrowth, for the well-being of people, but also of other species with which they live.
After long winter months working on landscaping, Emile Forest and Philippe Asselin, founders of Les Nouveaux Voisins, are returning to the earth to pursue the mission they have given themselves: to strengthen the ties between human beings and other living species. The task is colossal, because the whole of popular culture has to be reinvented.
“Our front and back yards have long been seen as parts of the house,” notes Emile Forest. A bias that has resulted in the maintenance of a lawn for gardens as a gigantic outdoor carpet. This grass, which came from the United Kingdom, was accompanied by a way of life which contributed to its proliferation to the detriment of the biodiversity which is nevertheless essential to our existence.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON THE PRESS
Emile Forest and Philippe Asselin, founders of Les Nouveaux Voisins, with Claudia Atomei, head of research and knowledge mobilization, at the Biodiversity Islands of the Grand Sud-Ouest Ecological Corridor, in Montreal, designed by the young organization.
Beyond pollution, it is the modification of the territory that is the most problematic for the planet. We come to fragment territories by creating deserts of biodiversity that species are no longer able to cross.
Emile Forest, urban planner and co-founder of Les Nouveaux Voisins
Living areas
Since 2019, with his accomplice Philippe Asselin, a landscape architect he met during studies in environmental sociology, the town planner has been working to change the order of things through the non-profit organization (NPO ) the New Neighbors.
“The new neighbors are, first of all, the other species that must be integrated into our neighborhoods, specifies Emile Forest. Once we put aside the classic layout of our gardens, poor for biodiversity, that we propose something wilder, we ourselves become new neighbors who clash. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NEW NEIGHBORS
Signs inform nature lovers at the experimental gardens on Campus of the transition from Parc Jean-Drapeau.
The idea is to enter into a new dialogue with our neighbors to convince them that nature is not there just to be clean, but crazy and rich, and that we need it.
Emile Forest, urban planner and co-founder of Les Nouveaux Voisins
The pandemic has decided them to invest full time in this task, which includes an important educational component and projects carried out with public institutions and individuals concerned about their environment. They already have nearly 30 on their program for this year, and count among their clients the architecture office Microclimat and the Atelier Pierre Thibault, challenged by their regenerating approach to living things.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
“Condos” for insects in a vegetated strip created by Nouveaux Voisins near the Jolicoeur metro station.
While the most alarming prospects hover over our planet, these shadow actors want to believe in the strength of individual initiatives. “Nature has this resilience: if we create an environment for it, it will be there”, supports Emile Forest.
The benefits of more diversified gardens for our ecosystem are numerous: reduction of heat islands, capture of carbon emissions, water retention, shelter from insects and birds… Another great advantage of these gardens favoring native plants: it you no longer have to worry about maintaining them. An accompaniment, made of specific interventions, for example a watering in the event of strong heat or a cut in spring, is enough.
PHOTO SAMUEL PASQUIER, PROVIDED BY NEW NEIGHBORS
White anemones mingle with tall golden grasses and various native plant species planted by the Nouveaux Voisins in front of this old house on Rockland Street in Outremont, renovated by Microclimat.
Reverse shot
Each residential project is approached in the same way. The team determines with its customers their needs and the surfaces they wish to return to nature. The courtyards in front of the houses, which are less used, are often given up immediately. The site is then subjected to a rigorous study to identify its characteristics (sunshine, acidity, humidity rate and soil composition).
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3D RENDERING PROVIDED BY NEW NEIGHBORS
For the development of this garden on rue Francis, in Longueuil, planned in two phases, this summer and the following one, the Nouveaux Voisins were inspired by forest ecosystems with clearings to allow different flowering cycles, with the idea to “break the repetitive rhythm of the suburbs”.
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3D RENDERING PROVIDED BY NEW NEIGHBORS
Some 600 plant species have been planted by the Nouveaux Voisins in this forest garden in Villeray, Montreal.
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“We try to work with the constraints of the site rather than transforming them”, specifies Emile Forest. A landscape archetype, such as one featured on the Nouveaux Voisins website, is then offered to customers. The technique then takes over with sketches and 3D renderings. The team insists that the owners be present during the work to awaken them to their new natural environment.
Both bathed in punk culture since adolescence, Emile Forest and Philippe Asselin believe in the beauty of things called “imperfect” or rather taking root off the beaten track. “Our gardens are expected to express themselves in a perfect, restrained way, but beauty exists in different aesthetics, especially in the natural world. You have to know how to recognize it and appreciate it,” says Emile, who will soon be returning to the experimental gardens set up three years ago with his team at the Campus de la transition at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal.
The goal is always to sow green ideas to the four winds.