Grounds of the Arp Museum

Just prior to starting the Arp Museum project, Peter Berg had travelled to Japan where he visited beautiful gardens and parks. Representatives of the European Association of Garden and Landscape Designers travelled to Tokyo and Kyoto where they saw outstanding Japanese garden projects. This trip inspired a design idea that later evolved and emerged in sketches. During the construction phase, Peter Berg did as the Japanese do, which was rely on intuitive decision making – the design was further developed as the garden was built.

“The rock garden is a unique work of art. It is part of the exhibition and not just an illustration,”

says Petra Spielmann, Managing Director of the Arp Museum (2018)
The construction of the Japanese Garden at the Arp Museum was an evolutionary process – Petra Spielmann says about the redesign of the meadow slope, which developed its own striking dynamic. “At first we looked in vain for a loan for the exhibition, a painting by Monet with the well-known motif of a water lily pond with a bridge. For fun we said that if we didn’t get it, we would build a bridge ourselves. Everything else developed around it.”

Japanese garden, the path along the pines

“For Hugo Torii, traditional Japanese horticulture stems from the design of the Kyoto temple garden.”

Japanese master gardener and landscape architect Hugo Torii learned his craft in the traditional gardens of the imperial city of Kyoto. When designing the grounds of the Arp Museum, he worked with Peter Berg in Sinzig. Together, they developed the Japanese garden in front of the museum.
The design of the grounds takes inspiration from elements from the Jodo (Paradise) Garden, including the symmetry of the building and a sophisticated balance in which everything is arranged in relation to one another.
After completing the project, Hugo Torii’s work in Sinzig came to an end. He took up a position as director of the “Portland Japanese Garden ” in the USA.