Futurology is a notoriously difficult business – very often, ideas about ‘what is to come’ appear to be curiously dated. So the British Library should be congratulated for launching forth with such gusto, by publishing this book of ten commissioned designs envisioned for 50 years’ hence. A side-project to the exhibition Unearthed: The Power of Gardening (at the British Library until 10 August), one suspects that this theme was originally conceived to be the exhibition’s finale. But it probably works best in book format, as there is more time to peruse the detail.
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The results are focused overwhelmingly on sustainability, with almost every design riffing on ideas of rainwater run-off, composting and practices such as aeroponics, aquaponics, biophilic design and phytoremediation (there is a glossary at the back). It is clear that all the designers involved view climate change as the single most important factor influencing horticulture in the future, impacting every aspect of a garden’s design. The British Library’s own criteria stated that the designs should ‘not be too fanciful’ and should use only technologies that are already being developed. The result is that most of the designs appear to be solutions for the here and now, as opposed to wild-eyed visions of the future.
Ann-Marie Powell’s urban back-garden design, for example, is perfectly serviceable but would not look out of place at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, while Harry Holding’s hovercraft wheelbarrows could have come out of a 1950s Dan Dare comic, though his design as a whole has great merit. Other concepts seem to be oddly familiar: Tayshan Hayden-Smith’s plan for a gardened Westway overpass is spookily reminiscent of Manhattan’s High Line, while Tom Massey’s balcony garden is a riff on Stefano Boeri’s high-rises with balcony gardens (an influence he acknowledges).
It’s as if we have been conditioned by sci-fi in popular culture to only gravitate towards ‘technological solutions’
Several designers have ignored the stricture about not being too fanciful, to good effect. Eelco Hooftman of landscape architects Gross Max can always be relied upon for something ‘out there’, and he delivers with his ideas about botanic gardens of the future. Tonkin Liu (Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu) have produced the most attractive and original concept: a revamped ‘garden square for the people’ prototype, with grass berms instead of railings and a rainwater catchment system. Their design has a poetic and very human appeal. And Sarah Eberle has returned to outer space (having won at Chelsea in 2007 with a Martian garden) by coming up with a properly worked-out concept based on NASA’s existing space-station garden.
Gardens of the Future is a stimulating proposition, then, also incorporating brief interludes on related themes in garden history, such as herbals and garden squares, and musings by gardeners on the places in their care. Midori Shintani, former head gardener at Tokachi Millennium Forest, has produced a joyfully insightful account of the making of this garden on Hokkaido, featuring marauding brown bears.
Gardens of the future: unique visions for a changing world
edited by Ruth Chivers
British Library Publishing, £30
ISBN 978-0712355087
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This book raises the question as to whether we will really be obsessed with sustainability as a guiding design principle in 50 years’ time. The romantic ‘rewilding’ concept does not feature – it’s as if we have been conditioned by sci-fi in popular culture to only gravitate towards ‘technological solutions’. But perhaps in half a century’s time humanity will still desire those things from gardens that it has always craved – the beauty of nature, productivity mingled with pleasure, a place for transcendent escape… Or is that a hopelessly romantic idea?
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