cover image New Nordic Gardens: Scandinavian Landscape Design

New Nordic Gardens: Scandinavian Landscape Design

Annika Zetterman. Thames & Hudson, $45 (288p) ISBN 978-0-500-51945-5

This beautifully illustrated book serves as a informative guide to the principles and techniques of contemporary Scandinavian garden design. Garden designer Zetterman sets out principles, organized by chapter, that clearly analyze the structure of Scandinavian gardens and explain their distinctive and dynamic features. The author has a keen sensitivity to the natural elements of the landscape, especially light and stone. Hardscape is the skeleton of gardens, and the author gives it an appropriately prominent place, incorporating stone and wood into the gardens’ fundamental vocabulary. The color palette of these gardens may be pale or sober, but the resulting character is not unemotional. One minor aesthetic quibble with the book itself: the text is grey and hard to read. This is a coffee table–worthy lookbook brimming with ideas and aesthetic integrity. It will stimulate possibilities for gardens well below the northern reaches of the Scandinavian latitudes. Color photos. [em](Apr.) [/em]