Last week the summer season began in the elegant Mimosa Garden of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where you can have a drink surrounded by lush Mediterranean vegetation.
This 1,300 m2 garden extends over the Hotel’s rooftop in a block interior of Paseo de Gracia and bears the signature of landscape architect Bet Figueras, architects Carlos Ferrater and Juan Trías, and interior designer Patricia Urquiola.
The project, completed in 2009, features a large pre-existing skylight in the center of the space that, along with the limits of its structure, has been one of the major constraints when designing the space. The structural lines, the only place where significant loads can be placed, become strips of trees and shrub vegetation. Among the shrubs, which are evergreen and mostly glaucous in color, stand out Convolvulus cneorum, Teucrium fruticans, Salvia officinalis, Santolina chamaecyparissus and Lavandula angustifolia. While in the side areas there are plants like Phormium in numerous individual pots.
Behind the bar area, a screen of tall shrubs visually separates the garden from the surroundings, creating an intimate and enclosed space, enclosed by a stainless steel mesh covered with climbers.
In contrast with the linearity of the flowerbeds, the stoneware paving creates a continuous surface of pieces with the typical proportion of the tiles of the interior courtyards of Barcelona’s Ensanche.
Around the skylights and in the side patios, other elements seek to recreate a domestic atmosphere, of a Mediterranean patio, with ceramic pots and aromatic plants placed in small groupings.
The garden is characterized by a tree species, mimosa (Acacia dealbata), with multi-stemmed specimens of considerable dimensions.
There is also a vertical garden on one of the side courtyard walls. This structure allows for a continuous green screen of Adiantum capillus-veneris and different varieties of Ophiopogon that serve as a scenic backdrop for the Hotel’s indoor restaurant.
Images: M. Galante