Japanese Garden

This book collects remarkable Japanese garden design projects, which might inspire the designers for more discoveries and creations. Japanese gardens (niwa) are the distinctive Japanese landscape category, which derives from the aesthetic and philosophical ideas in the east, and closely relate to local religious and cultural rituals. Represented by the dry gardens, tea gardens and stroll gardens, Japanese gardens are designed as the miniaturisation and abstraction of natural landscape, taking the naturalistic approach to draw the garden space into certain spiritual field. Japanese garden design is also open to modern design adaptations. For landscape designers, the study of Japanese gardens provides both classical reviews as research reference and novel landscape elements which could be taken into modern landscape design practice. This book collects remarkable Japanese garden design projects, which might inspire the designers for more discoveries and creations.

About the Author

Hirofumi Suga is a Japanese garden designer (niwashi). He was born in May 31, 1972, in Shakujii-koen. At the age of 17, he started working as a gardener at Shinwa Garden Firm in Tokyo, and went to Kyoto to work at Murakami Gardening Firm about three years later. After those experiences, he started the design firm Ichimoku-Isseki at the age of 22, which evolved into 1moku(ichimoku). While working on garden creation, Suga has taken part in a wide range of projects, gaining a deep knowledge of interior design and the design of commercial spaces. Suga believes that a gardener should do more than simply building a garden. He attempts to ensure that spaces embody their underlying philosophy. Always aspiring to enhance the status of professional gardeners, he has extended his field from the exteriors of private homes to urban landscaping.