Publisher's Weekly Review

This compact volume showcases the projects of top international landscape designers with sleek photographs (unaccompanied by text) of modernist garden sites around the world. Reflecting and swimming pools play a prominent role in this enjoyable compendium, which features a serene German swimming pond garden in Neustadt, Germany, designed by Alexander Oesterheld; a playfully minimalist Melbourne, Australia, poolside design from the firm Out From the Blue; and an austere, glamorous Uruguayan rock and water garden by architect Juan Bautista Sirpo and landscaper Rosa Ma Ricci. Other standout projects include Satmoko Ball?s Hamersmith Grove Garden in London and an airy design by Terence Conran for his own home, which offers a delightfully postmodern approach to the kitchen garden. This volume illustrates the beauty created by harnessing the landscape?s natural elements and also features the work of landscape architects who impose their own stark flights of fancy upon their surroundings. Though the book is not aimed at the do-it-yourself crowd (a helpful appendix provides detailed contact information for each featured landscape architectural firm), browsers particularly interested in garden seating, ?hardscaping? and pool design will find inspiration here. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.