Can you give us a description about your educational and professional background?
Following secondary school in 1959, I was fortunate enough to obtain probationary employment as a nursery boy with the City of Manchester Parks Department in the U.K. This was a natural step for me as I had always had an affinity with the plant kingdom and the natural world in general.
After a year, I was deemed worthy of being made an indentured horticultural apprentice and received a comprehensive education in nursery practice and amenity horticulture, which included a year at Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden and a year or so in the department’s technical office, where I experienced the practical application of the principles of landscape and garden design learnt at college.
My period on probation and my apprenticeship has been the bedrock of my career. I feel I am heir to that tradition, and have been much influenced by the combination of architectural features and landscape found in these great gardens.
As regards my professional status, this has been achieved through innate design ability and work in the field. Recognized by my peers, it led to my being elected a fellow of the Society of Landscape and Garden Designers (now the Society of Garden Designers), followed by membership of the Institute of Horticulture; the American Society of Landscape Architects; and The International Federation of Landscape Architects; also, through the design and construction of a garden on a Japanese theme, which was awarded The Royal Horticultural Society’s Gold Medal at the 1983 Chelsea Flower Show. This was the first garden that reflected my personal philosophy: to please the eye, gladden the heart and nourish the soul; and, according to the appreciative comments of visitors to the Show, as well as from a journalist who described it as “a garden to draw the lines from every furrowed brow and leave you at peace with the world and sinking into its beauty,” it achieved its purpose.
Who (or what) are the biggest inspirations of your career?
The biggest inspiration was the realization that I had the ability to design – design on paper that is, for hitherto my design expertise had been expressed on site by physically building a garden from pictures seen in my head – instant garden making!
The realization that I could design on paper in a spatial sense happened during the financial crisis of the mid nineteen seventies. I was a partner in a landscape design and build firm with horticultural retail premises in Chelsea, London. During one particular afternoon, all our contracts evaporated. Our Clients, most of who were bankers, one after another telephoned to say that they had lost their job and would not be able to proceed with our services. Consequently, staff had to be laid-off and this included the services of our landscape designer.
When the UK economy improved and work began to come in again, I was prompted to undertake the design-work myself and was astonished at what appeared on the drawing board. It seemed that the essence of what had been learnt at college and in the technical office during my apprenticeship, as well as knowledge acquired in the field, was reflected in the designs I produced.
It was through my colleague Ray, that I was introduced to the inspirational spiritual philosophy and work of Lawrence Halprin, the great American landscape architect who passed away last year. Lawrence Halprin’s aim was, as he put it, “to create a mystical place where one would be inspired to reach into oneself.”
Another designer whose work has influenced me and, indeed, inspired me is David Summerscales, during my apprenticeship David was chief landscape designer in Manchester Parks Department’s Technical Office. I am drawing on a reservoir of knowledge absorbed from David in those early years.
Of equal inspirational value, and which has proved to be catalytic to my view of the design professions involved with the built environment, was an experience I had in Athens with a villa designed by architect Nicos Valsamakis, recognized as Greece’s greatest living architect. I realized, as a direct experience that architecture, as practiced by masters such as Valsamakis, can provide a portal to higher states of being and in consequence and in combination with landscape architecture or garden design can lead to happiness.
What is the history of your practice?
The practice was established in Britain in the 1970s, initially as a design-build firm, operating in the London before becoming exclusively design-orientated in the mid 1980s, after the firm had begun undertaking overseas appointments, which included Nigeria, Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, Oman, Morocco and Italy. There was a break in the late 1980s when the practice was absorbed by Blanchards PLC and following the financial crisis, which soon ensued when the holding company ceased trading I resumed self-employment, undertaking a couple of palace projects in Bahrain. This led to the Ministry of Housing, Bahrain, inviting me to join on a seconded basis (through Arif Sadiq Design Consultants) a newly formed design team at the Central Municipal Council. After termination of this contract I was appointed landscape consultant to the Ministry of Housing Special Projects Department in connection with the development of one of the islands that make up the Bahrain archipelago. Following the successful completion of this assignment in 1994, I registered the practice in Bahrain. Since then, while most appointments have been in Bahrain, others have included the UK (this in response to an invitation from the Royal Horticultural Society for a garden design in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales), Malta, Greece, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and India.
What is your most memorable project and why?
All of my projects, for one reason or another, are memorable, though those which have been particularly significant in expanding my awareness or raising my consciousness or representing a channel through which the creative principle has been able to express itself particularly clearly, these include the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Garden and the Palace Garden in Abu Dhabi. This garden is memorable for several reasons: a) it was my first project in the Middle East; b) I abandoned the brief; c) it was the first occasion I reflected the principles of Islamic garden design; and d) the design intent aimed symbolically to unite heaven and earth.
Another significant project was the Equestrian Palace Garden, though current; this garden is memorable as it’s the first that I have been involved with that is being created mainly in honour of the Arabian horse. The garden allows for paddocks, parkland for grazing, and exercise trails, I designed the approach to the stable or equestrian palace in a formal manner to the glory of the Arabian Horse, this was directly inspired by a visit to the client’s stables at the local racecourse where, for my benefit and that of a colleague, these wonderful animals were put through their paces.
The garden will be home to other animals, such as various breeds of Saluki, the Arabian hunting dog, and like the Arabian horse, sleek and elegant. The graceful and sensitive Arabian gazelle will be represented, along with various types of falcon and other birds, including herons, which are a natural feature on the seashore bordering the site. An animal native to the site is the mongoose – I have seen two so far; and there are ring - necked doves and palm doves, which along with other bird life, live among the existing date palms and fruit trees.
A further memorable project is the weekend retreat. This project marked a milestone because the work has largely been allowed to speak for itself, without its abstract qualities being described - such has been my confidence that it would be appreciated at that level!
The garden was to have a Caribbean feel to it, and though a structure was required, the one shown in perspective is Thai in character and, though not rejected, it was pointed out by the client’s representative that it was not in accordance with the brief. Of course, this was correct, but it was included simply on the basis of its elegance. Also, the pool was circular while the client preferred a rectangular shape.
Perspective shows the scene adjusted to accommodate a structure in Caribbean style, inspired by the architecture of buildings I had seen on vacation in that part of the world last year. The swimming pool in each of the perspectives is infinity edge in style, giving the impression of merging with the sea.
Perspective (c) is a rough sketch in order to meet the date promised for the submission of the revised package. The after-thought came about as I felt that perspective lacked balance, for in redesigning the swimming pool as a rectangle, the plants which formerly occupied the extended area and which balanced the scheme, were removed, creating a lop-sided effect. Reintroducing the Thai style structure restored equilibrium and with the other structure framed the scene and with the client’s boat as the focal point, plus the pool itself merging with the sea, the whole, though not fully worked-up, presented a pleasing picture which, I am delighted to say, the client approved in its entirety (see image 36).
The project actually involves two gardens - that discussed above for the client himself, and the other for his children.
Organic and Biodynamic Garden
This will be memorable, as it is the first occasion that I have been approached in connection with this type of garden.
The organic garden is one in which organic, i.e. carbon-derived, decomposed materials, such as animal manure, composts and mulches are used to maintain and improve soil fertility, without resorting to synthetic chemical means. The organic garden also eschews the use of chemicals in the control of pests and diseases, relying instead on such measures as insecticidal soap, bacteria, Neem and potassium bicarbonate, as well as, sound horticultural practice; and, in the case of the vegetable garden, the rotation of crops. Another name for organic gardening is traditional gardening – the form practiced for centuries before the introduction of synthetic chemicals.
The biodynamic garden, developed from ideas promulgated by Austrian philosopher and mystic, Rudolf Steiner, while incorporating the principles of the organic garden, reflects a more inclusive or holistic approach which seeks to work more closely with Nature and incorporates a cosmic dimension. A similar philosophy may be found in Bahraini date palm gardens, where horticultural practices relate to what are called lunar mansions. These are periods in the year, now for example, i.e. the mansion Al Shaulah – the first half of January, when stars in particular constellations, in this instance Scorpio, are thought to emanate beneficial influences on such horticultural practices as the planting of aubergines, water melons and leafy vegetables as well as seasonal bedding plants. It is also an auspicious time for planting fruit trees.
Another aspect of this way of gardening relates to the elements of creation, these being earth, air, fire and water, symbolically found in the layout of the traditional Islamic garden, and which find expression as nature spirits (known as Jinns in Arabia and as genies to children the world over through the story of Alladin’s Lamp!) capable of communicating with humans sensitive enough to be aware of them.
Though I was not aware of elementals contributing to the design of the Nigerian garden, I included a sculpture of a unicorn as the terminal point of the drive leading up to the entrance of the client’s residence. Perhaps influenced by the healing, reconciliatory intent of nature spirits, I designed planting beds with semi-enclosures for featuring examples of Nigerian tribal art as a means of contributing to the healing process and in pursuit of national unity.
Despite the fact of not being aware of nature spirits, as individual entities, as such, this does not apply to the landscape, for I have a deep affinity with the land and am keenly aware of the genius loci or the spirit of place, which speaks to me in an abstract language and translates as mental images, which I then copy on paper.
www.johnadavieslandscapes.com
