BOOK REVIEWS

The Garden
of Cosmic
Speculation

Charles Jencks
Frances Lincoln, distributed by Bookwise International
$NZ106.95

A WEIGHTY tome that tells the story of one of Europe's most important landscaped gardens - Portrack, the Scottish home of international architectural critic and designer Charles Jencks and his late wife, landscape architect Maggie Keswick.

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is based on a series of "visual metaphors" installed at Portrack, from conceptual sculptures to massive earthworks that redefine contemporary landscape architecture.

A large, glossy coffee table book, it spells out Jencks' design philosophy in detail, with working drawings and explanations of the many large-scale features at Portrack.

Not a gardening book as such, The Garden of Cosmic Speculation will appeal to designers and landscape architects who want a fresh perspective on their profession - and on how we view nature.

Weekend Gardener, Issue 133, 2003, Page 31

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH