STUDIO LILY KWONG

BOTANICAL ART INSTALLATION & LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Studio Lily Kwong

Los Angeles-based landscape designer Lily Kwong works at the intersection between horticulture, urban design, contemporary art, fashion and wellness, reconnecting people to nature through transformative landscape projects and site-specific botanical art installations.

 

Kwong uses her passion for nature, developed at an early age among the Redwood trees in Northern California, to create cultural experiences that harmonize people within the environment.

 

After working as a Project Director at the LVMH Miami Design District where the tropical landscape is integrated into luxury retail and artworks ranging from Sou Fujimoto’s building facade to a Buckminster Fuller dome, Lily studied sustainable design with horticulturalists from South Florida to the New York Botanical Garden. Drawing inspiration from the Land Art Movement, Lily and her eponymous next-generation landscape studio use plant life as a medium to re-imagine the urban landscape.

 

What sets Kwong’s work apart is how it crosses disciplines and categories: her academic background is in urban planning, but her concepts encompass a poetic spirit that ultimately creates magical, visually evocative works that connect viewers back to nature.

 

Employing an exit strategy for the plants she uses in each temporal installation, donating them to schools or aged-care facilities, replanting and repurposing them after their original use is completed, Studio Lily Kwong’s gift is alchemizing nature and culture into enriching environments with a focus on sustainability, social responsibility, and how we can more effectively create environmental change.

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BRANDED INSTALLATIONS

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Glossier, Seattle
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Glossier, Seattle
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Glossier, Seattle
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Glossier, Seattle
Selected Press: Dezeen
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Selected Press: Hypebae

“Before we had CVS and Whole Foods, the forest and the jungle were our apothecaries, our medicine cabinets, our beauty cabinets.”

-Lily Kwong
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JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa
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JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa
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JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa installation
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JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa installation
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JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa
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JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa

“Lily is further elevating the JW Garden experience.”

-Bruce Rohr, Global Brand Leader, JW Marriott
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Lafayette 148, SoHo
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Lafayette 148, SoHo
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Lafayette 148, SoHo
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Lafayette 148, SoHo
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Lafayette 148, SoHo
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Lafayette 148, SoHo: Emily Smith and Lily Kwong
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'Moongates,' Bal Harbour, Miami
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'Moongates,' Bal Harbour, Miami
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'Moongates,' Bal Harbour, Miami
Moongates Exterior
'Moongates,' Bal Harbour, Miami

"Kwong writes that her studio’s mission is to 'reconnect urban people to nature,' and with their enormous scale and delicate construction, these pieces couldn’t fail to grab pedestrians’ attention."

-Vox Media
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Installation photograph
Installation photograph

“I see photography as being in direct conversation with time and human perception - you are capturing a moment, and re-calibrating your relationship with time and your environment, just as a garden does.”

- Lily Kwong
Photograph by Tod Hido
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EVA Air, Taipei
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EVA Air, Taipei
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Selected Press: EVA Air magazine
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Selected Press: EVA Air magazine
Eva Air

"A relationship with the natural world can help teach us those universal, timeless lessons that are the keys to our preservation."

-Lily Kwong
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Take-Two Interactive, Los Angeles
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Take-Two Interactive, Los Angeles

“I was deeply inspired by the project site. I wanted to layer the landscape with dynamic performances and art pieces ranging from dance to archival 'magic' projected films to a sound installation featuring sacred tones."

- Lily Kwong
St-Germain, Los Angeles
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St-Germain, Los Angeles

“Lily's take for L.A. includes discovery moments throughout the estate that still has caves, hidden tunnels, and terraced gardens. Her romantic-yet-whimsical journey celebrates the joyful decadence of summer indulgence, with an opportunity for guests to enjoy a rare fleeting moment of exuberance in the spirit of 1920s années folles."

-Camille Ralph Vidal, St-Germain brand ambassador
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Selected Press: The Hollywood Reporter
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Selected Press: Vogue
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PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS

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Visuals Freedom Garden
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Visuals Freedom Garden

“It’s time to revive gardening as a civic duty during this moment of peril and crisis. Nothing will be more valuable at this pivotal moment than self-sufficiency.”

-Studio Lily Kwong
Visuals Freedom Garden
Visuals Freedom Garden
How to build a Freedom Garden Webinar
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Highland Park Orkadia, New York
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Highland Park Orkadia, New York
Highland Park Orkadia making of, New York
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Summer in Winter, New York

"Not only is 'Summer in Winter' a destination for a sensory experience, but it is also a learning experience through the filter of Lily. I thought of this idea of 'Summer in Winter' as a reaction to climate change. NYC winters seem harder and harder and a respite seemed necessary. At the same time, we're creating a paradise that is unfathomable in the natural world."

-Cecilia Dean, Co-founder, Visionaire
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Selected Press: Office
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Selected Press: Cultured
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The 14th Factory, Los Angeles
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The 14th Factory, Los Angeles
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Art Basel 2019, Miami
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Art Basel 2019, Miami
Art Basel 2019
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Maison St-Germain, New York
Maison St-Germain, New York
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Maison St-Germain, New York
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Maison St-Germain, New York
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Maison St-Germain, New York
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Maison St-Germain, New York
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Selected Press: Whitewall
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Selected Press: Vogue

“St-Germain really empowered me to express my design vision, and in the process, gave a platform to so many gifted artists to create an extraordinary installation on one of New York’s most iconic landmarks.”

-Lily Kwong
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Art Basel 2017: Tree of Life
Art Basel 2017, Miami
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Selected Press: Forbes
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Selected Press: Whitewall
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PERMANENT LANDSCAPES

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Shou Sugi Ban House, Water Mill, NY
Shou Sugi Ban House, Water Mill, NY
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Shou Sugi Ban House, Water Mill, NY
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Shou Sugi Ban House, Water Mill, NY
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Crosby Street Hotel, New York
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Crosby Street Hotel, New York
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PRESS

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Selected Press: A-D-O
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Selected Press: Condé Nast Traveler
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Selected Press: New York Magazine
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Selected Press: Interview Magazine
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Selected Press: Vogue
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Selected Press: The Coveteur
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Selected Press: CULTURE
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Selected Press: TeenVogue
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Selected Press: ELLE Decor
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Selected Press: InStyle magazine
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Selected Press: Forbes: '30 under 30' - Art & Style
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Selected Press: The New York Times
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Selected Press: Architectural Digest
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Selected Press: Women's Wear Daily

STUDIO LILY KWONG