The last two decades have seen a great explosion in the diversity, function, and beauty of modern landscape architecture. Private commissions have been the testing ground for the most radical experimentation. This first major survey of contemporary private gardens explores the imaginative ideas behind landscape design today. Almost fifty projects from more than twenty-five landscape architects worldwide are thoroughly documented here.

Diversity characterizes each designer's work. The modernist aesthetic, translated from art and architecture - especially the strains of cubism, the International Style, postmodernism, minimalism, and Earth Art - gives form to a great number of the landscapes presented. Many designs have been equally influenced by the legacy of Luis Barragan, Isamu Noguchi, and Roberto Burle Marx. A consideration of the physical and social contexts is also evident in the designers' concern for the environment. The remarkable blend of projects in this volume captures contemporary landscape architecture at this important moment.