Delighted to see the approaching end of the Gadaffi regime, and having offered an urban landscape idea yesterday, I am wondering how garden designers could help today. One idea is to invite suggestions for what to do with Gadaffi’s respond Golden Fist Crushing American Jet Statue (the Bab al-Azizyah Tripoli compound, where it stands, was [...]
What makes the setting of a town extraordinary? What makes a development extraordinary? What makes a garden extraordinary?
Is it the subtlety of colour? Is it the unexpected? Strong formal qualities? A sense of fun? Or a location to die for?
Or the delight of the whimsical? Or recognition of the familiar?
Just what is the [...]
As a ‘green’ who loathes tyrants, few political events give me more pleasure than seeing one of them preparing to bite the dust, as today. But should Tripoli’s ‘Green Square’ be renamed ‘Martyrs’ Square’ as they propose? Some of the considerations are:
It received its present name because ‘green is the colour of Islam’
But ‘green’ [...]
I had a chat with a gardener in one of London’s Royal Parks this week and he was a nice a man as you could meet anywhere. He loved his work and he loved the visitors who admire his work. Talking about a park user who seemed troubled, and who he tried to look after, [...]
Chinese ladies normally have a very high reputation in the world because of their unique oriental beauty, their loyalty and their steadfast love. The above photograph is of a painting of one of the four most beautiful ladies in China, who’s name is Xishi. This description serves as the first two characters of the Chinese idiom 沉魚落雁, [...]
Jonathan Mueller, as President of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2011, writes that ‘As a profession, we are entring a time of unparalleled opportunity. One of great promise. One where the fruits of our collective efforts have begun to be realized. In July 2009, Engineering News-Record ran a cover article titled “Landscape Architecture [...]