Icon - Arrow LeftAn icon we use to indicate a rightwards action. Icon - Arrow RightAn icon we use to indicate a leftwards action. Icon - External LinkAn icon we use to indicate a button link is external. Icon - MessageThe icon we use to represent an email action. Icon - Down ChevronUsed to indicate a dropdown. Icon - CloseUsed to indicate a close action. Icon - Dropdown ArrowUsed to indicate a dropdown. Icon - Location PinUsed to showcase a location on a map. Icon - Zoom OutUsed to indicate a zoom out action on a map. Icon - Zoom InUsed to indicate a zoom in action on a map. Icon - SearchUsed to indicate a search action. Icon - EmailUsed to indicate an emai action. Icon - FacebookFacebooks brand mark for use in social sharing icons. flipboard Icon - InstagramInstagrams brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - PinterestPinterests brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - TwitterTwitters brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - Check MarkA check mark for checkbox buttons.
You are reading

Required Reading: ‘Visionary’ by Clare Takacs with Giacomo Guzzon

Search

Start typing to search...

Search
Landscape Architecture

Required Reading: ‘Visionary’ by Clare Takacs with Giacomo Guzzon

May 9, 2024

In the introduction to her epic new book, Visionary; Gardens and Landscapes for our Future, photographer Clare Takacs admits that in 2021 she set out to shoot only 30 to 40 gardens across the Mediterranean for the book. Instead the project, co-created with landscape architect Giacomo Guzzon, turned into an odyssey of sorts, with almost 80 gardens shot from Carmel Valley, California, to The Dandenongs in Australia, close to where she grew up.

The book showcases the way that garden design is attempting to keep pace with climate change and how it can respond to or mitigate the effects of prolonged drought, record-breaking temperatures, flooding, and extreme rainfall on our gardens. It’s a sumptuous survey of resilient garden design right now; the results are inspiring and thought-provoking, and illustrate how nature can thrive even in the most hostile environments.

Below, a peek at just a few of the magnificent gardens featured.

Photography by Clare Takacs, from Visionary; Gardens and Landscapes for our Future.

Above: In the Toledo garden, in Talavera de la Reina, Spain, designer Fernando Martos uses a limited palette and an understated approach to link this garden to the wider landscape. Enclosed by a curving dry stone wall, the garden features large boulders dotted around low-rise buildings and a farmhouse. The planting includes species that can cope with the exceptionally harsh environment including Euphorbia seguieriana, Stachys byzantina, Achillea tomentosa, Phlomis viscosa, and prostrate rosemary, as well as light-catching grasses including Sesleria ‘Greenlee’ and Stipa gigantea.
Above: A guesthouse on an old estate in the north of Ibiza is entirely enclosed in terraced gardens with stone terraces matching the house and gravel walkways, and neat Mediterranean plantings of prostrate rosemary, ballota, achillea, Helichrysum orientale and Santolina chamaecyparissus.
Above: James Basson’s work in the south of France, where his landscape business is based, is well-known for its often trail-blazing response to climate change and reassessment of what garden design can be. His drought-tolerant plantings are more in keeping with the wild landscapes of the region. In this early project there are olive and cypress trees, clipped shrubs including rosemary, bupleurum and teucrium along with the intense blue flowers of pervoskia.
Above: The terraced gardens of The Rooster in Antiparos, Greece, meld into the landscape with native planting, fig and olive trees, along with Juniperus oxycedrus, Bougainvillea spectabilis as well as Sarcopoterium spinosum, a native species reintroduced by local nurseries.
Above: A series of roof gardens designed by Piet Oudolf in collaboration with Tom de Witte, surround a private house south of Amsterdam. Plants including Allium tanguticum ‘Summer Beauty’, Amsonia hubrichtii, Calamintha nepeta, Eryngium bourgatii, Limonium platyphyllum, lavandula, Salvia yangii (syn. Perovskia atriplicifolia), Sesleria autumnalis, sporobolus, echinacea, Teucrium x lucidrys, agastache, Origanum laevigatum, Salvia sclarea, Sedum matrona, Stipa tirsa, Stachys byzantina and Festuca mairei are planted into six inches of free-draining substrate.
Above: Swedish nurseryman and landscape designer Peter Korn is known as “the sand man” for his pioneering work using sand as a growing medium. Here, in the Klinta Garden, created with his partner Julia Andersson, the naturally sandy soil was amended with additional sand and planted with colorful and sun-loving herbaceous plants and grasses including Dianthus carthusianorum, Stipa pulcherrima, baptisia, salvia, ballota and echinops.
Above: The only African garden in Visionary, Azaren consists of a contemporary house designed by architect Imaad Rhamouni and a surrounding landscape by Eric Ossart and Arnaud Maurières, whose designs in France, Spain, Morocco and beyond are known for their striking environmentally sensitive approach in arid locations. Set in the Ourika River Valley in Morocco’s High Atlas, a 20-acre orchard is planted with olives, pomegranates and fig trees. The garden surrounding the ochre building features agave, cacti and ornamental grasses.
Above: In her book, Takacs showcases public projects alongside private gardens. Here in the 250-scre Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, several hundred mangrove trees within the Dragonfly Lakes and Kingfisher Wetlands function as a carbon sink by removing greenhouse gases from the environment. In Singapore the move to greening the city began in the 1960s, long before it became a trend. Lately the Garden City has evolved further with a Green Plan 2030, which focuses on the development of a climate-resilient and biodiverse city with an epic tree planting program and an additional 2,500 green spaces.
Visionary is in stores now.
Above: Visionary is in stores now.

See also:

(Visited 8,414 times, 2 visits today)
You need to login or register to view and manage your bookmarks.
Add to Collection
New Collection

Frequently asked questions

What is Clare Takacs' new book called?

Clare Takacs' new book is called 'Visionary; Gardens and Landscapes for our Future'.

How many gardens did Clare Takacs initially plan to shoot?

Clare Takacs initially planned to shoot 30 to 40 gardens across the Mediterranean for the book.

How many gardens did Clare Takacs end up shooting for the book?

Clare Takacs ended up shooting almost 80 gardens for the book, from Carmel Valley, California, to The Dandenongs in Australia.

What is the focus of Clare Takacs' new book?

The book focuses on how garden design is responding to climate change and the effects of extreme weather on gardens.

Where can you find more information about Clare Takacs' book?

You can find more information about Clare Takacs' book 'Visionary; Gardens and Landscapes for our Future' by visiting this link: https://bookshop.org/p/books/visionary-gardens-and-landscapes-for-our-future-claire-takacs/20262428

Product summary  

Explore Deeper Into These Areas

Previous Post

Ideas to Steal: 8 Tips from Leslie Needham on Designing Gardens that 'Blur the Edges'

May 8, 2024
Next Post

Hardscaping 101: Wood Decks

May 10, 2024

Have a Question or Comment About This Post?

Join the conversation

Related Stories

Read all recent posts

join us on Instagram Logo

gardenista_sourcebook

Sourcebook for Cultivated Living, sister site to @remodelista
Tag us using #gardenista 🌿🌱

Gardens & Outdoor Living

v5.0

×
Join the Remodelista Family of Websites

Become a Member at no charge

When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.

Member benefits include:

  • Access to all posts published in the past year
  • Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
  • Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
  • Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
  • Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
  • Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites

Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!

For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.



Subscriber benefits include:

  • Unlimited access to all three sites
  • Weekly access to subscriber-only content
  • Ad-free browsing environment
  • Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
  • Receive the full-text daily newsletters
  • All features that Members have access to
  • Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites

For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.



Subscriber benefits include:

  • Unlimited access to all three sites
  • Weekly access to subscriber-only content
  • Ad-free browsing environment
  • Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
  • Receive the full-text daily newsletters
  • All features that Members have access to
  • Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Sorry! As a registered member you get 10 free posts from our archive (posts more than a year old) every 30 days. You have reached your limit for this 30-day period. If you would like to access unlimited posts from the archive (ad free, too), become a subscriber today, and keep reading as many articles as you want.

Full Access Individual Subscription

Benefits include:

  • Unlimited access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home sites
  • Ad-free browsing environment
  • Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
  • Receive the full-text daily newsletters
  • All features that Members have access to
  • Annual subscribers pay just 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99


×
Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.

Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites

For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.



Subscriber benefits include:

  • Unlimited access to all three sites
  • Weekly access to subscriber-only content
  • Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
  • Receive the full-text daily newsletters
  • All features that Members have access to
  • Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99

Become a Member at no charge

When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.

Member benefits include:

  • Access to all posts published in the past year
  • Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
  • Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
  • Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
  • Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
  • Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites

My Account

Your member profile is powered by memberstack