modern gardens
Designing gardens implies many skills, but above all creativity. Here you will find a selection of landscape architects that we believe will be of inspiration. Be they Australians like Paul Bangay, Chinese like Kongjian Yu, British like Dan Pearson or Italian like Patrizia Pozzi; ideas will come from all around the globe. We will sweep virtually across the world introducing you to talented garden designers who work locally or abroad. The criteria of selection is totally independent with direct links to individual websites so that you can have up to date information on projects. Discover Landscape architects that reinvent space, enhance the beauty of nature and create meeting places where man meets nature. Many are trend setters, others invent spectacular colour combinations with plants, some have a great sense of structure and a few include modern art. Every designer will suggest a garden to visit, a garden that has in turn inspired their work, a connection to the History of Garden Design that goes back centuries, far before it became a recognized profession.
Discover these great gardens of the world
Arte Sella
Arte Sella: the contemporary mountain. A unique creative experience that in thirty years has seen the encounter of artistic language, sensibility and inspirations united in the desire of a fruitful and continuous dialogue between the creative and the natural world.
Jardin Majorelle
Jardin Majorelle was bought by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 1980. The garden now offers a wide selection of botanical specimens.
Le Stanze in Fiore Di Canalicchio
The 7-acre garden surrounds the neo-classical country villa built in the 1800s. Work started in 2000 at the behest of Rossella Pezzino de Geronimo, with the idea of creating a contemporary flower garden bringing together about 1000 species of rare tropical and sub-tropical plants.
Longwood Gardens
In 1906, industrialist Pierre du Pont (1870-1954) purchased a small farm near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, USA, to save a collection of historic trees from being sold for lumber. Today, Longwood Gardens is one of the world’s great horticultural displays, welcoming more than 1.5 million guests each year.
The Bahá’í Holy Places and Gardens in ‘Akko and Haifa
The Bahá’í Holy Places and Gardens in ‘Akko and Haifa are the spiritual focal points for Bahá’í pilgrims who travel here from every part of the globe to visit and pray at these sacred spots.
Constitution Kuwait Garden
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Constitution of Kuwait, Al Amiri Al Diwan, the government agency, decided to build a park in Kuwait City to host “The Constitution”, a monumental garden celebrating the path to democracy of the State of Kuwait.
Aga Khan Garden Alberta
The Aga Khan Garden is a gift to the University of Alberta from His Highness the Aga Khan. It brings to life the principle of pluralism in a 4.8-hectare Mughal-inspired space where traditional Islamic landscape design takes on strikingly contemporary features
Anima Garden
ANIMA is a magical place of sensuality, of wonder, of contemplation, of joy, of healing, and of inspiration.
Radicepura
Radicepura is a horticultural park inspired by the Faro family’s dream, particularly of Mr. Venerando Faro’s, who makes available to everyone his historical experience in international floriculture with his private collection.
Aga Khan Garden
The Aga Khan Garden is a gift to the University of Alberta from His Highness the Aga Khan. It brings to life the principle of pluralism in a 4.8-hectare Mughal-inspired space where traditional Islamic landscape design takes on strikingly contemporary features.
Stonefields
The layout of the garden is heavily influenced by the philosophy of Italian hill villas and gardens, with formal gardens flanking the entrance to the villa and a spectacular lawned garden containing a pool hugging the hill on the view side of villa. Plantings involve a juxtaposition of formal box hedges and shapes sitting with soft romantic herbaceous perennials.
André Heller Botanical Garden
This incredible garden is in Gardone Riviera, in the splendid context of Lake Garda. It is considered to be a true ecological ensemble without equal in other parks and botanical gardens.
Arboretum Kalmthout
Arboretum Kalmthout is a botanical paradise situated in the north of the province of Antwerp. Since 1856 the plant collection of the 12.5 hectares garden has grown to 7.000 plant species from around the world.
Ayrlies Garden and Wetlands
Situated in the rolling country of east Auckland, Ayrlies is one of New Zealand’s best known gardens. Characterised by sweeping lawns, mature trees, and detailed drifts of plantings alongside waterways, softly woven into a tapestry of great beauty and tranquility. A strong but sensitive use of colour is an Ayrlies hallmark, best seen in the lurid border where hot vibrant colours are used in bravado display and in other areas where old roses, clematis and perennials are combined in a romantic profusion.
Les Jardins de Metis
Les Jardins de Métis, also known as Reford Gardens, were born in 1926. Elsie Reford started working on a fishing camp by the Metis River and she transformed it into a garden. In 1962 the gardens were opened to the public.
Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens
Time honored garden filled with abundant flowers, a reminder of flourished cultural exchanges in the Edo period.
Villa Ottolenghi Wedekind
Villa Ottolenghi Wedekind garden was designed by Pietro Porcinai. Porcinai worked on the Ottolenghi garden in several phases until the 70s.
Jardin des Cinq Sens
Located on the french shores of the Lake Geneva, The Garden of Five Senses is a vegetal case inspired by Middle Ages. On the heart of Yvoire, medieval village, Yves and Anne-Monique d’Yvoire have thought their garden according with the symbolism of mazes.
Highgrove Gardens
The Prince of Wales came to Highgrove in 1980 and the house and gardens have since undergone many thoughtful innovations. When His Royal Highness first arrived, Highgrove possessed little more than a neglected kitchen garden, an overgrown copse, some pastureland and a few hollow oaks.
La Mortella
This is a contemporary landscape and botanical masterpiece, created
and cared for by Susana, wife of the late sir William Walton, one of the most important twentieth century British composers.
Sunder Nursery
Sunder Nursery was established, in the early 20th century– to propagate saplings for New Delhi’s avenues and experiment with plants brought from other parts of the British empire. Following a 2007 MoU with government agencies, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture commenced conservation and landscape works at Sunder Nursery to create a 90-acre city park with distinct heritage, ecological and nursery zones and required facilities.
Botanical Garden Marimurtra
The Marimurtra Botanical Garden is situated right on top of the first cove of the Costa Brava called Sa Forcanera. It is a privileged place where you can enjoy its rich botanical, architectural, landscaping and human heritage.
Butchart Gardens
Located in Brentwood Bay BC, The Butchart Gardens, has been enthralling visitors for over 115 years with its stunning 22ha (55acres) of floral display gardens. Jennie and Robert Pim Butchart began The Gardens in the early 1900’s, and today it is still privately owned and operated, now by their great granddaughter.
Babylonstoren
With the Simonsberg, Du Toitskloof and Franschhoek mountains as backdrop, Babylonstoren in the Drakentein Valley of South Africa sits at the heart of the Cape Winelands.
This restored Cape Dutch farm dates back to 1692. It’s reknown for its magnificent 3,5 hectares garden with pergolas, gravel pathways and water canals.
Sunnylands Center & Gardens
© The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands Sunnylands center & gardens USA Sunnylands Center & Gardens can be seen as one of the final gifts …
Rikugien Gardens
This strolling, mountain and pond-style garden was created based on the theme of Waka poetry in the 15th year of the Genroku Period (1702) by the shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi’s trusted confidante Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu.
Jardín de Cactus
Jardín de Cactus is situated on the edge of the village of Guatiza while also looking beyond its limits to the many cultivated quarries and craters embodying the fertile equilibrium between nature and culture existing on the island.
Le Parc Floral
The Parc Floral opened in 1976. Major works had been undertaken, a valley dammed to enable the water to flow in a succession of ornamental pools; pastures turned into lawns, flowerbeds, mixed borders and rare trees planted. A waterfall made with 650 tons of rocks was built in an unused quarry.
Scape Design
After establishing a reputation for community and Hospital gardens in London, James and Helen moved to the South of France and set up Scape Design sarl in 2000 in order to pursue their passion for creating sustainable landscapes and planting design for private clients.
Cruden Farm
Cruden Farm is the beloved former home of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. More than eighty years in the making and at the heart of a working farm, Cruden Farm’s garden is a delicate piece of country set amid dense suburbia that feels like it will endure forever.
Parco Giardino Sigurtà
Sigurtà Garden Park, owned by the Sigurtà family, is an oasis of nature on a hill just a few kilometres from Lake Garda and the cities of Mantua and Verona. Prizewinner as Italy’s most beautiful Park in 2013, thanks to its extensive size of 600,000 square meters and its annual flowerings that follow on season upon season, the Park has charmed millions of visitors over the forty years since it opened to the public
Labirinto della Masone
In the midst of the Emilian countryside, less than a ten-minute drive from Fidenza and fifteen from Parma, Franco Maria Ricci, publisher, designer and collector, has created the biggest bamboo maze in the world. Stepping over the threshold leads into a timeless dimension, where the taste for art and beauty are united with a passion for nature.
Al Azhar Park
In 1984, His Highness the Aga Khan envisioned a park for the citizens of Cairo, one of the densest cities in the world. The 30-hectare site was selected, because of its enormous potential as a “green lung” at the centre of the historic city.
Champ de Bataille
When the storm of 1993 occurred, most of the century-old trees planted in the nineteenth century were killed by lightning. Jacques Garcia made the decision to recreate sumptuous gardens that time had erased.
VanDusen Botanical Garden
VanDusen Botanical Garden is located in the heart of Vancouver, Canada with over 7,500 plant species and varieties from around the world. Formerly the Shaughnessy Golf Course, the land was redeveloped into a 55-acre botanical garden that opened in 1975. The garden is jointly operated by the City of Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association.
Hamilton Gardens
Hamilton Gardens is a living museum that tells a story of cultures and civilisations through beautiful, inspiring, and iconic gardens. From Ancient Egypt to the Concept Garden, you will travel across continents, slide through centuries, and stroll through history as never before. Each beautiful garden is a piece of history that celebrates the ideas and beliefs of its age. You will enter a world of imagination, exploration, beauty, and inspiration. There is always something new to discover, uncover, and explore. With more than 1.1 million visitors a year, Hamilton Gardens is Hamilton, New Zealand’s number one tourist attraction – and unlike any other public garden in the world. Explore our magical Enclosed Garden collections.