Book Review: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
By Charles Jencks
Published by Frances Lincoln Ltd., London, 2003

This book of spectacular photography and intriguing insight into design, tells the story of the Garden of Cosmic Speculation on the grounds of Portrack in the Borders area of Scotland, one of the most original gardens on the planet. It began when Charles Jencks followed the inspiration of his wife, Maggie Keswic, to design a garden at her mother?EUR??,,????'???s estate in Scotland in 1988. He and his wife were scientists and wanted to explore some of the fundamental aspects of nature via garden design, a kind of microcosm of the universe. ?EUR??,,????'??What is a garden if not a miniaturization, and celebration, of the place we are in, the universe??EUR??,,????'?? asked Jencks.

The couple had a large canvas on which to work?EUR??,,????'??+30 acres. Jencks relates that constructing a garden ?EUR??,,????'??contains an inevitable element of autobiographical story.?EUR??,,????'?? For him, it led to ?EUR??,,????'??moments of mutual creativity?EUR??,,????'?? with his wife Maggie, who initiated the grand scheme, and the practical side of design and building it with friends, craftsmen and the head gardener, Alistair Clark. Unfortunately, Maggie died in 1995, but the garden work continued and expanded.

Spirals are a prominent in the gardens. He wondered, ?EUR??,,????'??How does a pineapple know how to create beautiful spirals??EUR??,,????'?? He notes the many spiraling elements in nature ?EUR??,,????'??typically 5 elements spiraling to the left and 8 spiraling to the right, or 13 and 21, or 34 and 55, etc., ?EUR??,,????'??? follow(ing) the Fibonacci series ?EUR??,,????'??? each term the sum of the previous two.?EUR??,,????'?? The spiral shape is in the DNA molecule, the hurricane and is the shape of our galaxy.

Other themes include snakes and dragons; the six senses; ambigrammi (designed words that can be read right side up and upside down); undulating walls; willowtwists (twisting structures made from a single long sheet of aluminum cut and split twice); waveforms; pyramids; equations; the atom; nature in an octagon; noneuclidean furniture; fractals (forms of self-organization that fall somewhere between symmetry and disorder); metamorphosis; undulating bridges; fingerspitzengef????hl (?EUR??,,????'??brilliant scientific intuition?EUR??,,????'??); cascades; time and speculation, among other ideas.

Visually, the book is a joy to regard. Each page brings new delights. If one had only one garden to visit, this would be the one. Its eclectic character and breadth of ideas is staggering. If you can?EUR??,,????'???t visit Portrack, strolling the garden through its pages is satisfying, as are reading the design inspirations.

Charles Jencks is also the author of The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, What is Post-Modernism?, and The Architecture of the Jumping Universe.