We are delighted to host photographer Claire Takacs and landscape architect Giacomo Guzzon, to celebrate their new book, 'Visionary: Gardens and Landscapes for Our Future'.
In the new book, Visionary: Gardens and Landscapes for Our Future, Claire Takacs and Giacomo Guzzon introduce stunning private and public gardens from around the world that have addressed the need to be both sustainable and climate-conscious – with outstanding results.
In this talk, Claire and Giacomo will present a slideshow of gardens from the book, exploring inspirational new ways garden and landscape designers are tackling planting and garden design in the face of climate change. Examining pioneering gardens across the UK, USA, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, the talk highlights innovative design solutions that look to the future but keep beauty in mind.
The talk will be chaired by Tom Stuart-Smith, who is currently working on the National Garden Scheme’s garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 – a garden focusing on naturalistic planting and biodiversity which consciously provides a sense of tranquility and calm.
Bios
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Claire Takacs
Claire Takacs
Claire Takacs is a freelance photographer who has specialised in capturing gardens and landscapes around the world for the past twenty years. Her work features regularly in international magazines, including Gardens Illustrated. She has contributed to many books, and this is her fifth title, which she has photographed exclusively. Previous books include: the highly acclaimed and successful Dreamscapes (which she also authored), Australian Dreamscapes (Hardie Grant), Windcliff; A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens by Dan Hinkley (Timber Press) and Wild: The Naturalistic Garden, with text by Noel Kingsbury (Phaidon).
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Giacomo Guzzon
Giacomo Guzzon
Giacomo Guzzon is a landscape architect and expert in planting design. He has taught planting design at several schools and universities, such as Sheffield, Greenwich and KLC, and currently serves as Head of Planting Design at the international landscape architecture firm Gillespies in London. He contributes to conferences and publications and has spoken in Hong Kong, the US, and throughout Europe. He is currently pursuing a PhD in plant science at the Technical University of Berlin.
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Tom Stuart-Smith
Tom Stuart-Smith
Tom Stuart-Smith is a landscape architect whose work combines naturalism with modernity and built forms with romantic planting. He read Zoology at the University of Cambridge before completing a postgraduate degree in Landscape Design. Tom has since designed gardens, parks and landscapes throughout the world.
Recent projects in the public domain include several projects at Chatsworth, a new public garden at the Hepworth Wakefield, and the masterplan for RHS Garden Bridgewater, which is one of the largest new garden projects in Europe. 2021 saw the completion of a new Islamic garden, Jellicoe Gardens in Kings Cross, commissioned by the Aga Khan Development Network and Argent, and 2022 will see the dramatic recasting of a garden by St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London which has a 100m² water basin at its centre, reflecting Sir Christopher Wren’s famous dome. Current projects include a new garden at Knepp that seeks to maximise biodiversity, and a castle on Loch Ness in Scotland.
Previous projects have included Her Majesty the Queen's Jubilee Garden at Windsor Castle, Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire, the Bicentenary Glasshouse Garden at RHS Garden Wisley and the Keeper’s House Garden at the Royal Academy of Arts.
International projects include Le Jardin Secret in the heart of the medina in Marrakech, a garden located on the waterways near Kottayam in Kerala, and show gardens for the international horticulture exhibition at IGA Berlin 2017 and the international garden expo Beijing 2019.
He has also designed eight award winning gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show, all of which were presented with gold medals and three ‘Best in Show’.
Tom regularly gives talks and lectures, and continues to write occasionally for the Guardian, Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, amongst others. An exhibition on his work, the first about a living garden designer in the UK, was held at the Garden Museum in 2011.
Tom is a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society, a Trustee of the Garden Museum, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the Landscape Institute, and a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers.
In May 2021, Thames & Hudson published a critical monograph of his work, written by Tim Richardson, which features twenty-four gardens from around the world.
Throughout his career Tom has also developed his own family garden at home in Hertfordshire, which is open to visitors each summer, by appointment.
