This is why Antwerp province chose Ronald van der Hilst – designer, landscape architect and tulip connoisseur – to create the pavilion for its entry to the China International Garden Expo. It’s hosted by the city of Chongqing on the Yangtze River in west-central China. This huge municipality of about 29 million people has a long history of economic and cultural ties with Antwerp. Both harbour and river towns, they are now even connected by a direct rail freight link.
Opening in November and lasting until May, the nearly three billion yuan (€360 million) Garden Expo covers an area of 220 hectares, boasting more than 40 landscaped gardens, 127 exhibition areas and 26 tourist attractions based on China’s architectural and landscaping heritage.
Several urban centres from around the world were invited to design their own gardens under the theme “Better garden, better city”. The gardens were designed by Abraham Rammeloo, director of the Kalmthout Arboretum, and Antwerp province landscape architect Leen Dierckx. The main colours of the garden are red and white, reflecting the official colours of the city of Antwerp.
Dutch-born van der Hilst lives and works in Antwerp and designed the garden’s massive, pure white pavilion using one of his tulip-based designs. The design highlights the flower’s origins in China and the trade relations between the two cities.
Van der Hilst was amazed by Chongqing’s attention to the international exhibition. “From our hotel to the garden, all along the motorway were flowerpots. I mean each flower had its own pot!”
Sitting in van der Hilst’s showroom, you are transported to a space dedicated to the aesthetics of the tulip. Based in Antwerp’s arty and antiquey Latin Quarter, his trademark designs around the simplistic beauty of tulips are known worldwide.
“Being Dutch and doing tulip-based designs – how clichéd,” he smiles. “I really hated it in the beginning.” For an open-door day of the various shops and showrooms in the neighbourhood about five years ago, he spontaneously thought of designs and paintings using tulips. Quite an enthusiastic response followed, and the idea stuck.
In 2005, his famous Bulba vase was offered to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands during a state visit. The design was an instant hit, and van der Hilst was further motivated to design tiles and other objects inspired by this once exotic flower.
“The tulip was first introduced in Antwerp in the 16th century,” van der Hilst says. “It was discovered by accident as it arrived here in the form of a bulb that looked a bit like an inedible onion.”
At first the bulbs were very expensive, reserved for the rich. But eventually, they were easier to come by. “People didn’t really know what to do with the bulbs, and they threw them in the garden. As the flower blossomed with unusual colours, residents got really inspired.”
The gardens of Antwerp became famous all around Europe for the vivid colours and exuberance of their tulips. “There was more of an artistic approach to the tulip in Antwerp, whereas in the Netherlands, it was more commercial.”
This year marks the 450th anniversary of the introduction of the tulip in Antwerp, and van der Hilst is working on a design for the Kalmthout Arboretum of a display of 10,000 tulips. Antwerp will also host the World Tulip Summit in September. Specialists from around the world will gather to discuss the past and the future, the growing and marketing techniques of, says van der Hilst, “this humble, simple flower”.
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