描述
Gardens have always been places of leisure, pleasure, andproduction. They reflect identities, dreams, and visions. They also have deepcultural histories and immense symbolic potential. The recent revival howeverhas focused less on the garden as a site of romantic refuge and more on thegarden as a place to imagine the future otherwise; urban farms, verticalgardens, and other innovative urban planning projects demonstrate that thispresent return is no timid retreat but a pioneering quest for a world in whichecological justice counts for something.
»Garden Futures« examines what gardens and their design reveal aboutour relationship to nature. In exploring the history of ideas behind the moderngarden, this book takes a close look at the present, searches into the past,and builds bridges with the future. It includes stunning photographs ofgroundbreaking gardens by artist Derek Jarman and garden designer Piet Oudolf,while critical essays by well-known authors question the ideals of theconventional garden – from seemingly perfect, water-wasting lawns to ubiquitousplants and their colonial roots. Historical photo-essays consider the garden asa political space, and gardeners Gilles Clément and Jamaica Kincaid present thegarden as a place of learning where abstract concepts like ecology, climatechange, and food insecurity are translated into things you can smell, touch,and taste.
»Garden Futures« also features experimental approaches taken bygardeners and landscape architects such as New York–based Julia Watson andMalaysian collective Kebun-Kebun Bangsar. In the age of the Anthropocene, it ishoped that this book is part of recognizing the entire planet as a garden thatwe need to tend to and use responsibly.With texts by Jamaica Kincaid, Gilles Clément, Liz Christy, andothers; interviews with Julia Watson, Bas Smets, Céline Baumann and Ng Sek San
