Gardeners Garden; We in esteemed company-250 Projects /600 Years

February 25, 2016

Every now and then I suppose we find ourselves in places that seem pleasing and yet awkward. This I presume is one of them. In a Phaidon publication that maps 250 gardens , over 600 odd years, we find ourselves sitting in the company of ShahJehan, Andre Le Notre, Geoffery Jellicoe,Thomas Church,C.Th Sorenson, Burle Marx, Luis Barragan, Repton, Paxton, Olmstead et all. This is down right embarrassing- since we would hardly qualify by miles. And yet there we are…

How does it happen? I suppose an effort at stock taking; at the desire to sort of have an updated list of all the gardens that matter till date. Even so, we suppose its rather difficult to say that one can club the work of say Sorenson, or an Olmsetad with a modern project; however good it is. After all a lot of these projects have been there and stood tall for hundreds of years, and stood the test of time- hardly what our work has done when compared with that time scale.

Nonetheless, its a good feeling and hence here we are sharing it.

Introduction by Madison Cox:

The index of projects.

The flier listing the designers .

Missing in the list above, but in the book are two other recent Indian projects; the late Prof. Shaheers, Sanskriti Kendra is one of them.

Our project below.
Halfway Retreat
Ahmedabad; Gujarat

Also below some of the many projects that we truly admire which are part of the book.
Skogskyrkogarden (Woodland Cementry) Enskede, Stockholm, Sweden
Erik Gunnar Asplund, Sigurd Lewerentz

Villa D’ Este, Tivoli, Lazio, Italy
Pirro Ligorio

Alhambra & Generalife, Granada, Andalucia, Spain
VariousPool Garden, Sonoma County, California, USA
Thomas ChurchCottesbrooke Hall, Northampton, Northamptonshire, UK
Robert Weir Schultz, Geoffrey Jellicoe, Sylvia Crome, James Alexander Sinclair, Angela Collins, Arne MaynardStowe, Buckinghamshire, UK
Charles Bridgeman, Sir John Vanbrugh, William Kent, Lancelot ‘Capability Brown’
Garden of Peace, UNESCO Head Quarters, Paris, France
Isamu NoguchiSitio Roberto Burle Marx, Barra de Guaratiba, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Roberto Burle Marx
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, London, UK
William Kent, Lancelot ‘Capability Brown’ and others

And this one below particularly strikes a emotional chord. Its by C. Th Sorenson, who taught Prof. Bhagwat; someone he looked upto along with Brian Hackett as his teacher; and the project below- one he talked about often ! and we could never find good pictures to see it- and now here are the pictures and Prof. Bhagwat is not there.

De Runde Haver, (The Oval Gardens), Naerum, Zealand, Denmark
Carl Theodor Sorensen

And this one, which in one of our earlier blogs we called, ” The Taj Mahal of landscapes”. Its a fantastic project.

Australian Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Taylor Cullity Lethlean, Landscape Architects with Paul Thompson

And ofcourse the one below.

High Line, Manhattan, New York City, USA
James Corner, Diller Scofidio & Renfro Piet Oudolf

And the one below, a project that has fascinated us now for many months and its narrative has made us question many times the meaning of our work.

Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, Kent, UK
Derek Jarman

And ofcourse this one by some one we love, and call a friend !

Jardin Los Vilos, Coquimbo, Chile
Juan Grimm

The Gardeners Garden.
Phaidon Press Limited.
2014.

Its Out !! -Landscape and Garden Design Sketch Book

December 25, 2015

Tim Richardson is the rather brilliant and knowledgeable landscape writer from England; and has to his credit some of the most respected titles in Landscape Architecture. Many years back he did a book called Futurescapes ( Thames and Hudson) where he showcased 50 practices from across the globe that he

The Dublin Report.

February 29, 2016

The Dublin Report.

Tim Richardson, that prolific writer, at some point had literally dug out a lot of design firms across the globe to find place in his book "Futurescape – Designers for tomorrow’s outdoor spaces" (Thames & Hudson-2011)

He then in 2013, recommended to