Sensory Garden at the Donum Estate

The Donum Estate, located in Napa Valley’s Carneros region, boasts one of the world's largest accessible private art collections, with more than 60 sculptures representing a global community of artists nestled in 200 acres of vineyards and hills.

The redesign of this 2 acre portion into a resilient garden created a destination space at the heart of the property that unifies the new installation Hyperspace by Yan Bao with the existing sculptures through the property.

'LOVE (Gold/Red)' 1966-2000 | Robert Indiana
'BigRock' 2006 | Arik Levy
'The Words I Love the Most' 2012 | Ghada Amer
'Love Me' 2016 | Richard Hudson
'Big Moma' 2003 | Richard Hudson
'We the People (detail)' 2010-2014 | Danh Vo
'Morning Glory' 2017 | Sopheap Pich
'Soma' 2016 | Subodh Gupta
'Hombre Caminante (Walking Man)' 1999 | Fernando Botero
'Vertical Panorama Pavilion' 2022 | Studio Other Spaces

Set within view of Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads 2011, an iconic Love sculpture by Robert Indiana, and other monumental works arrayed on nearby hillsides, the site was anchored by Big Moma, a Richard Hudson bronze fountain. We situated HYPERSPACE in accordance with strict guidelines regarding placement and orientation, and where the pieces would harmonize with existing artworks.

Based on the concept of an exploded maze, we designed bold sweeps of plants to craft a landscape that will offer distinct seasonal experiences while also acknowledging nature’s supremacy: if a plant type succumbs to phytophthora, only one sweep, rather than the whole garden, will have to be replaced.

Gingko trees were installed around the fountain to establish a sense of arrival and introduce shade to a sun-drenched spot. We paired evergreen grasses with perennials of different heights and seasonality to provide variety, as well as pollinator habitat to support the estate's honeybees and lavender, olive and grape production.