Architecture in the Garden [Hardcover]

James van Sweden (Author), Tom Christopher (Author), Penelope Hobhouse (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: January 21, 2003

The elements of garden architecture—paths, walls, gates, fences, terraces, sheds, lighting, furniture, waterworks, and art—together form the backbone of any well-designed garden. In this beautifully illustrated and accessible book, legendary landscape architect James van Sweden explains how to design and build a garden like a professional. He leads his readers on a tour through some of his most exquisitely designed gardens—in the country, in the city, in the suburbs, and by the shore. “When it comes to planning a comfortable and rewarding garden,” van Sweden writes in his Introduction, “the challenges that confront the owner of an estate or a weekend cottage are often substantially the same. The principles and techniques used for organizing a large site work equally well in a more modest setting.”

Each case study highlights a particular architectural element, breaking it down into practical ideas that any gardener can apply to his or her own garden or yard. The book includes dozens of detailed schematic drawings that can be used to build many of the elements described by the author, along with an extensive, illustrated glossary. Architecture in the Garden is sure to inspire you with its many practical ideas on how to domesticate your landscape and design an outdoor space that suits your taste as well as your lifestyle.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this first-person how-to, van Sweden builds on the success of Gardening with Nature and Gardening with Water to reveal more about his own process of developing a garden design, showing readers how to come to their own decisions along the way. A landscape architect in partnership with Wolfgang Oehme for the last 35 years, the Washington D.C.-based van Sweden has a knack for cool, precise prose that matches the carefully planned yet free-feeling pathways that he finds essential to a garden's "good bones." After three opening chapters covering van Sweden's "Inspirations," "The Gardener's Need for Architecture" and "Elements of Garden Architecture" respectively, van Sweden presents six case studies of differing sites, from "country" to "town" to "seaside" gardens of varying scales, climates and surrounding architecture. Bullet-pointed questions at the end of each chapter train readers to notice the elements of their own terrains and begin to work with them in terms of, for example, plant choice and "slope" as a means of creating "drama." A final "Gallery of Architectural Features" shows paths, decks, edging, stone, fences and gates, walls and many more "features" in situ; van Sweden's calm intelligence shines throughout. (On sale Jan. 21)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Landscape architect Van Sweden's celebrated style might be summarized in a notion he sets forth early on in his latest book, that of "marrying house and garden." Thoughtful descriptions of an appropriate process and approach to creating a harmonious garden plan flow from the importance of initial planning to the concept of breaking down the space into the virtual floor, walls, and ceiling of the garden. To inspire inexperienced garden makers, Van Sweden elucidates upon examples of gardens he has created. Accordingly, whether an individual faces the task of transforming acreage in the countryside, or simply wishes to enliven a lilliputian urban lot, there is fluent guidance to help build confidence and know-how. Van Sweden brings readers along on his own creative path, and in doing so, sets up myriad ways of viewing garden architecture. A final section highlights further insights, contained in an array of special architectural features and appealiing possibilities. A sophisticated primer for the budding designer. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (January 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375501541
• ISBN-13: 978-0375501548
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.8 x 10.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #877,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical and beautiful June 19, 2003

By MIRANDA JOHNSON

Format:Hardcover

With gardening books more prolific than cyanophyta on a neglected pond, I was expecting typically lovely photos accompanied by a heavy-handed lecture on what HAD to be done and NOT done. This book is so wonderfully not that. The text is distilled expertise, so readable and new its actually hard to look at the pictures. I can't imagine what it would cost to have the author around for an hour to give you this advice in person -but it would be worth it!!Instead, we have this great book with relevant pictures that demonstrate the text perfectly. A cultivated pleasure.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Making good bones November 1, 2003

By Valerie Adolph

Format:Hardcover

James van Sweden has been designing gardens for over 30 years and he is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. In this book he shares with the reader the essential role that architecture plays in organizing the garden landscape. With carefully chosen examples he shows how man-made features of the garden - paths, walls, gates etc. - create the framework for a garden that is both beautiful and easy to live with.

This book is readable and anecdotal in style, yet it covers the fundamental principles of design and shows how they can be put into practice to enhance many different types of garden. It is extensively illustrated, mostly with the author's own photographs, and these support the text in clearly delineating the applications of design principles to town gardens, seaside gardens, country gardens and so on.

Despite the author's relaxed approach this is a very thorough book and it will be invaluable to anyone planning a garden. My only quibble is that many of the gardens might be called estates, measured in acres, and to some extent this limits the book's practical value to the gardener with a standard city lot, or less.

But good "bone structure" is important in all gardens and this book will help any gardener pull together the significant man-made pieces of the garden into a graceful and beautiful whole.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite reference book September 3, 2005

By Melanie Williams

Format:Hardcover

I am a landscape designer and I use this book constantly, not only for inspiration, but also for the illustrations provided on how to construct many of the architectural features shown.

This book has a permanant place on my drafting table and has so many paper clips marking pages--it is by far the most useful book about landscape architecture I have come across.