Designing with nature in mind: meet POUSSE Agency
Exploring the vibrant world of plant design from runways to rooftops
Using real-time visualization to design immersive, nature-led environments
POUSSE is a French 360° plant design agency rooted in landscape and plant design. They work with a diverse portfolio of clients to bring greenery into all types of spaces while ensuring each project is designed to last sustainably.
They use Lumion Pro to aid and drive their client communications, creating powerful visual stories to convince and inspire clients. We sat down with Managing Director Sarah Delaval to get a look behind the scenes at some of their innovative projects and to dig deeper into their unique approach to visualization, and their passion for plant design.
Can you introduce yourself briefly?
I'm Sarah Delaval, Managing Director and Partner at POUSSE, where I joined at the end of 2016.
I don't have a degree in landscape design, and in fact, I'm not a landscape designer. I don't know how to build a terrace, or even the names of plants and their flowering times.
My role is to develop our company, promote the brand, structure the team's work, find solutions to ensure the company runs smoothly, and also recruit the landscape designers who manage Lumion.
Can you tell us about the POUSSE agency, its vision, and the projects you've developed?
POUSSE is a 360° plant design agency built on landscape expertise and a passion for plant design. We support individuals, businesses, hotels, architects, and event agencies in greening all their living spaces, both indoors and outdoors, and we ensure the sustainability of these projects.
At POUSSE, we believe that nature is not simply a backdrop but an integral part of our daily lives. Our projects aim to recreate these "bubbles of nature" that awaken the senses, soothe the mind, and leave lasting memories. We champion contemporary landscaping that combines aesthetics and innovation.
From the Chloé fashion show to the greening of the Palais de Tokyo for Ligne Roset, and including creative installations for major brands (Bacardi, Adopt, Spotify) and hotels (Rochechouart, Terrass' Hotel), our team transforms each space into a unique sensory experience.
How does an agency like POUSSE use 3D visualization to enhance its projects?
We use 3D visualization as a strategic tool to convince, inspire, and reassure clients:
1. We tell the story of the project before it even exists.
Thanks to Lumion Pro, we can quickly transform a technical plan into realistic and immersive images, or even videos and virtual tours.
This allows clients to envision their future garden, terrace, or green wall, to experience the volumes, colors, light, and atmosphere… even before the first shovel hits the ground.
2. We showcase our expertise and creativity.
Lumion 3D renderings demonstrate the meticulous attention to detail: choice of plant species, layout, perspectives, seasonal effects, and the interplay of light and shadow. We train our teams every year to achieve this.
This also helps reinforce our high-end and innovative brand image.
3. We facilitate decision-making and save time.
With precise and realistic visuals, communication with clients is smoother, allowing them to:
Validate proposals more quickly
Understand technical constraints
Adjust details before work begins
4. We create powerful marketing support.
Images and videos from Lumion aren't just used during the client project phase: they become high-value content for our website, case studies, Instagram, LinkedIn, and our portfolio/sales presentations.
Sarah Delaval
Managing Director and Partner, POUSSE
"Thanks to Lumion Pro, we can quickly transform a technical plan into realistic and immersive images, even videos or virtual tours."
How does using 3D rendering facilitate your relationship with your clients?
Using 3D rendering facilitates our relationship with clients because it eliminates abstraction.
By seeing their future space in realistic images, they no longer "imagine" it based on a technical plan or sketch: they can immediately visualize it, it becomes realistic. This simplifies communication, speeds up decision-making, and reduces misunderstandings.
3D becomes a common language between the client, the landscape designer, and the technical team: everyone sees the same thing, at the same time, and can refine every detail together. However, be careful not to oversell, as this can be misleading if the 3D rendering doesn't accurately reflect the technical constraints or the actual budget.
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In your opinion, which types of rendering best showcase your landscaping projects (perspective, video, 360°, virtual reality)?
To showcase our landscaping projects, I think each type of rendering has its advantages:
3D perspectives (the ones we produce all the time) are essential. They provide precise images and angles of the project at eye level.
Animated videos offer a real first step in immersion.
360° renderings—I'm not sure we've used those before.
Virtual reality offers total immersion, allowing the client to "walk through" their future space, but it's much more complex to set up.
We also systematically add night views, which reveal the lighting and atmosphere, as well as seasonal scenes to show how the plantings change throughout the year.
Sarah Delaval
Managing Director and Partner, POUSSE
“3D is becoming a common language between the client, the landscape architect, and the technical team.”
To what extent are digital tools like Lumion Pro reinventing the landscape architecture profession?
In a world where architecture often steals the spotlight (and the budgets), digital tools like Lumion Pro are a real boon for landscape architects.
They allow us to showcase skills beyond fieldwork and demonstrate our expertise upstream of the project: the choice of plant palette, creating atmospheres with precise and immersive renderings that resonate with everyone. And to incorporate other materials: wood, light, water features…
Thanks to these digital tools, our profession can finally gain the recognition it deserves, on par with architecture. They are reinventing the landscape by making the invisible visible and showing that this profession can also be innovative, avoiding stagnation in the past.
Read the story in French here
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