The objective of this training is to offer participants a practical and sensitive approach to natural color, allowing them to save time in selecting materials and palettes thanks to the intrinsic harmony of plant hues, which "work together." This method promotes immediate aesthetic coherence, directly inspired by living things, and brings strong added value to projects with high artistic, cultural, or environmental demands. It also allows participants to differentiate themselves with high-end or emotional projects, while acquiring concrete tools to convey this approach to their clients, colleagues, or partners. Beyond the technical aspects, the training opens up a field of reflection on regenerative, vibrant, and poetic design, based on beauty rather than ecological constraints, and rooted in an aesthetic that resonates with nature.

At the end of the training, the intern will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of plant-based dyeing, its potential, and its limitations
• Create and integrate a plant-based palette into an architecture, design, or scenography project
• Recognize and select truly sustainable bio-sourced materials
• Construct a contextualized and well-argued color statement
• Use color as a vector for well-being, differentiation, and ecological transition
• Overcome barriers to the use of natural shades in professional environments (construction sites, artisans, project owners, etc.)
• Understand the concrete implications of the RE2020/RE2031 regulations to better defend creative and sustainable choices

This training offers an immersion into the world of plant color as a tool for creation, communication, and differentiation in artistic, cultural, or design projects. Through a technical and sensory approach, participants will discover how plant-derived hues offer a coherent, harmonious, and immediately aesthetic palette, directly inspired by the balance of life.

An initial session will be devoted to observing the intrinsic properties of natural colors: their instinctive compatibility, their subtlety, and their ability to interact with each other without dissonance. This understanding saves considerable time in the selection of materials and color ranges, while ensuring a visually coherent and rich result.

The training will also emphasize the added value of these palettes in demanding contexts: high-end projects, sensitive scenographies, and heritage or cultural projects. Participants will learn to use plant color as a true marker of identity, capable of distinguishing a project while strengthening its connection to the site and the environment. Concrete tools will be provided to integrate this approach into professional practice: pitches for clients, presentations of natural mood boards, comparative samples, and a sensitive color vocabulary. These materials will enable trainees to convince and share this approach with their teams, partners, and sponsors.

Finally, this training offers an opening to a broader vision of design: a living, regenerative design that is not based on ecological constraints but on beauty, emotion, and the relationship with the living. Through experimentation, discussion, and observation, participants will be invited to develop a personal perspective on color as a poetic, ecological, and profoundly contemporary language.

Program

Day 1/ Morning and Afternoon

Dive into Living Color

• Introduction: What does plant color reveal?
• Presentation of completed projects (architecture, design, public spaces) - Demonstration of plant dyeing (color extraction, supports, effects)
• Creation of a sensory exploration palette
• Immersion in Natural Harmonies
• Debriefing and Collective Feedback

Day 2/ Morning and Afternoon

Understanding, Designing, Arguing

• Bio-sourced Materials: Typologies, Labels, False Promises
• Decoding RE2020 / RE2031: Challenges for Architecture/Design
• Site Analysis Workshop: Light, Use, Atmosphere
• Creation of a Guided Plant Mood Board
• Initial Elements of the Project Intent Note

Day 3/ Morning and Afternoon

Apply and Share

• Methodology for Integrating a Plant Palette into a Real-Life Project
• Addressing Technical and Human Obstacles (Project Owner, Craftsmen, Construction Sites)
• Workshop: Creation of a Personal Palette Notebook
• Oral Presentation of Projects and Color Intents
• Summary of Learning, Evaluation, Feedback

Virginie Lagerbe

Colorist-dyer and garden alchemist, trainer, speaker

Winner of the Talent for Innovation Award (Summit of Luxury and Creation, Paris 2025), Virginie has been supporting architectural, scenographic, and decorative projects with high artistic, ecological, and emotional added value for several years. A speaker at Campus MaNa and a consultant for pilot projects (hotels, eco-lodges, social housing), she shares her expertise in sensitive palettes derived from plants, in an approach combining contemporary design and respect for living things. Her research and creation work has led to numerous collaborations and exhibitions: the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris (2023), the Château de Martainville for the Flaubert Bicentenary (2021), the Boscherville Abbey (2020), the Victor Hugo Museum in Villequier (2020), and the textile color chart for the grounds of the Château de Rosa Bonheur (2019). In 2022, she curated a retrospective dedicated to the botanist-dye maker Dambourney, presented at the Saint-Georges Abbey in Boscherville.
She is also the recipient of the Institut de France's Heritage Prize (2019) for her contribution to promoting Colette's Jardin d'Enfance in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, and the Silver Ribbon awarded at the Chantilly Plant Festival that same year.

Trained in plant-based dyeing with Magali Bontoux (Couleur Garance, Qualiopi certification), Virginie perfected her expertise between 2012 and 2017. Since then, she has developed a unique practice that combines artisanal precision, sensory poetry, and environmental commitment.

It all began in 2012, when she discovered natural dyeing techniques out of curiosity. This encounter was an aesthetic shock: plant dyes, extracted from bark, roots, leaves, and flowers, revealed unexpected, subtle, and soothing hues, always in harmony with their environment. Fascinated by the way each fiber reacts differently, Virginie perceived an infinite number of harmonies, a colorful language that was both ancient and profoundly contemporary.

This quest for the colorful soul of plants became the guiding principle of her approach: extending the emotion of the garden into interior spaces, revealing the discreet beauty of local plants, and connecting art and life. Today, she transmits this sensitive and committed approach through her training, her creations and her collaborations with players in heritage, design and art.

• Classroom, multipurpose room, workshops with professional equipment
• Materials provided
• Individual and collaborative work
• Workshop work
• Active participation and experimentation of participants are encouraged

• Collective and personalized monitoring of work, regular updates
• Individual and group work
• Workshop work
• Self-assessment (assessment of acquired knowledge, questionnaire)
• Production and acquisition of theoretical and technical contributions
• Collective feedback: experience report at the end of the training (precision and clarity of the oral presentation)
• Sign-in sheet per half-day
• The training is validated by a Campus MaNa certificate.