192 pages
8 1/2 x 11 inches
150 color photographs
ISBN 978-1-58093-152-6
$45 hardcover
U.S. rights

Making the Modern Garden
Christopher Bradley-Hole

Designing a garden is a liberating experience, an opportunity for freedom of thought and expression. The essence of the modern garden, perhaps more so than in any other era, is that it perfectly expresses its owner’s personal relationship to nature. Fresh considerations of concepts demonstrated in nature—how plants adapt to indigenous landscapes, the dynamic changes they undergo as they grow and change with the seasons, and the effects of weathering on materials like wood and stone—often yield innovative design ideas. New gardens can be wild or precisely organized, neatly confined or open to vast panoramas, meant to encourage an appreciation of plants in minute detail or appreciated from a distance as a whole.

In this richly illustrated volume, award-winning landscape architect Christopher Bradley-Hole has collected a fascinating range of contemporary gardens from around the world. The entire process of garden design is presented, starting with a discussion of the influences that have shaped modern spaces. Thematic chapters present fundamental topics in the philosophy of contemporary design, including sources of inspiration, proportion, and the dialogue between the natural landscape, the planted landscape, and architecture. Featured throughout are the contributions of twentieth-century art and landscape architecture to present-day design, represented by prominent artists and architects such as Dan Flavin, Le Corbusier, and Roberto Burle Marx.

The author examines gardens of all sizes and types, including roof and courtyard gardens, urban and country gardens, water gardens, and dramatic landscapes. Examples drawn from the work of renowned designers including Fernando Caruncho, Peter Walker, Kathryn Gustafson, Jacques Wirtz, Renzo Piano, Luis Barragán, and Vladimir Sitta reveal modern gardens in a wide range of styles and locations. The volume concludes with a refreshing look at the creative ways an ever-changing palette of plants is used to create the quintessentially modern garden.

Christopher Bradley-Hole is a leading landscape architect in the U.K. He has won numerous awards, including gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2004. His first book, The Minimalist Garden, won the Garden Writer's Guild Inspirational Book of the Year award for 1999-2000. He also teaches at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.