phaidon's 'the contemporary garden' tracks thirty years of experimental landscapes

A New Lens on the Garden as Design Medium

The Contemporary Garden, set to be published by Phaidon, presents a wide-ranging examination of garden design as a dynamic field of architectural, ecological, and cultural expression. Spanning more than 300 projects completed since the mid-1990s, the book moves alphabetically through the work of international practitioners — from solo designers to multidisciplinary studios — building an expansive picture of the garden’s evolving role in contemporary life.

Rather than organizing gardens by geography or chronology, the structure favors unexpected visual and conceptual juxtapositions. A minimalist desert-scape in Botswana sits alongside a rooftop farm in Brooklyn, while a historical hillside in Japan is reimagined by Tadao Ando as a meditative lavender-clad mound. Each project entry is accompanied by a brief, description and a full-color photograph, offering insight into both context and intention. Together, these case studies chart the transformation of the garden from decorative amenity to spatial laboratory.

The Contemporary Garden, cover | images courtesy Phaidon

Scale and Function reimagined in the contemporary Garden

What distinguishes The Contemporary Garden is the variety of forms it embraces, many of which expand beyond the traditional bounds of horticulture. The High Line in New York and Bosco Verticale in Milan demonstrate how planting strategies can be integrated at the urban scale and across vertical surfaces, while smaller interventions such as Jihae Hwang’s sculptural installation at Seoul Botanic Park blur the lines between landscape and conceptual art.

Projects featured in the book often reflect a dialogue between architectural structure and ecological sensitivity. Terraced surfaces, concealed infrastructure, and water-harvesting swales reveal a design language concerned as much with sustainability as with aesthetics. The rooftop garden at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Singapore and the sloping vegetated plaza in South Korea’s corporate headquarters both demonstrate how landscape can play a performative role in larger systems of wellness and environmental care.

The Contemporary Garden, spread

A Generational Shift in Practice

An introduction by garden designer and educator Annie Guilfoyle traces the rise of the New Perennial movement, public interest in ecological planting, and a general loosening of stylistic constraints. The volume positions these shifts within the broader context of post-industrial reuse and community-led design. From Maggie’s Centres in the UK to Assemble’s Granby Winter Garden in Liverpool, the featured works signal how gardens are being used for therapeutic, educational, and communal purposes.

The inclusion of gardens like the rooftop urban farm in Brooklyn, producing over 70,000 pounds of organic produce annually, emphasizes the garden’s expanded utility in the 21st century. Others, such as Stefano Assogna’s Podere Casanuova di Sicelle, demonstrate a refined approach to Mediterranean resilience and planting typologies grounded in natural systems.

The Contemporary Garden, spread

With a graphic design by Melanie Mues, the book maintains a consistent visual rhythm across more than 330 pages. Its sequencing encourages visual comparisons without overwhelming the reader, and its editorial tone balances concise description with thematic framing. Contributors include respected voices in horticulture and design journalism — Sorrel Everton, Tovah Martin, and Michael McCoy among them — each bringing a layer of expertise to the survey.

While grounded in horticulture, the volume consistently intersects with architecture, particularly through collaborations between landscape designers and architects such as Heatherwick Studio and Olin. These projects explore how material thresholds, sightlines, and circulation paths are shaped by planting decisions and spatial choreography.

Australian Garden, Taylor Cullity Lethlean with Paul Thompson, Cranbourne Gardens, Victoria, Australia, 2006, 2012