Enzo Enea.
Photo: COURTESY OF ENEA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Creative Mind: Enzo Enea
The Swiss landscape designer and Tree Museum founder orchestrates painterly landscapes that enhance captivating architectural wonders around the globe
While Enzo Enea is one of the most prolific landscape designers working today, with customary Swiss stealth, he seems to fly under the radar. With offices in Zurich, Milan, Miami, and New York, his company currently has projects far and wide, from the Four Seasons in Cartagena, Colombia, to the Peninsula Hotel in Istanbul and the twisting towers by Bjarke Ingels on the High Line in New York.
“Every place has a different geology, rainfall, sunshine,” he says. “We measure everything, so first we are analysts, then we are engineers, then we become artists, and finally the architects of the landscape.”
A private garden in Kea, Greece by Enzo Enea. Photo: COURTESY OF ENEA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
It’s at home in Rapperswil-Jona, near Zurich, that Enea’s philosophy shines most brightly. Here, in 2010, he opened his Tree Museum, an incredible arboreal collection that covers an 18.5-acre site. Among the many specimens flourishing are ancient examples that he saved from construction sites, including a Japanese maple dating from 1895 and a horse chestnut from 1902, as well as a significant number of sculptures, not least Sylvie Fleury’s exquisite metallic mushrooms.
“First we are analysts, then we are engineers, then we become artists, and finally the architects of the landscape”
enzo enea
Philosophy: “Beauty will come if you follow nature itself,” he says. “I plant like the rainforest, in gradual layers, and that in itself brings sustainability.”
A private garden in Carré Belge in Cologne, Germany by Enzo Enea. Photo: HG ESCH PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF INGENHOVEN ARCHITECTS
Up next: He is focused on the gardens at the storied Art Deco Raleigh hotel in Miami, conserving its famously curvaceous pool while adding three more.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Spring Issue under the headline “Creative Minds.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: Enzo Enea.
Photo: COURTESY OF ENEA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
