Abstract

Gardening is rich in tradition, and many gardens are explicitly designed to refer to or honor the past. But garden design is also rich in innovation, and in The Making of Place John Dixon Hunt explores the wide varieties of approaches, aesthetics, and achievements in garden design throughout the world today.
           
The gardens Hunt explores offer surprising new ideas about how we can carve out a space for  respite in nature. Taking readers to gardens public and private, busy and hidden away, to botanical gardens, small parks, university campuses, and vernacular gardens, Hunt showcases the differences between cultures and countries around the globe, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, and Australia. Richly illustrated, The Making of Place is sure to enchant and inspire even the most modest of home gardeners.

“The Making of Place taught me about many architects and projects I was not aware of, thanks to the discussion of what I’d wager is at least one hundred gardens. Not all of the places are masterpieces nor are documented with some of the many photographs provided, but this is where Hunt’s critical voice is most important: his commentary expresses what is important about each garden, what can be learned from them, and how they have influenced subsequent landscapes. Unlike other Hunt books, which are geared to people with an existing knowledge of landscape history and theory, this book is rewarding for those who might not have a heavy background in garden design but bring with them a strong interest in the subject.”
  — A Daily Dose of Architecture
“Hunt has an engaging writing style—succinct, erudite, occasionally wry, and yet charming. This interesting work is not about how to make a garden but how to understand and enjoy the ways complex and intertwined themes bring viewers to a heightened level of understanding of designers’ intent. . . . Highly recommended.”
  — Choice
“Far too many books on contemporary gardens are aimed at the coffee table rather than the library, concerned more with flattering a select body of individual designers than informing the reader about the current state of garden-making. Here is a scholarly, critically rigorous, but very readable and well-illustrated account of gardens around the world today.” — A Magazine
John Dixon Hunt is emeritus professor of the history and theory of landscape at the University of Pennsylvania.