Mirrors of Paradise

Book excerpt: Now back in stock, this highly sought after monograph represents the gardens and landscapes of the Spanish designer Fernando Caruncho. Renowned internationally for serene compositions based on timeless principles of natural forms and geometry, Caruncho has recently completed two landscapes in the United States, one in the rolling farmland of New Jersey and the other in Florida. Caruncho draws inspiration from a wide spectrum of precedents—the garden-academies of ancient Greek philosophers as well as important historic gardens in Spain, Italy, France, and Japan; in Mirrors of Paradise, Caruncho discusses his design philosophy and influences in a substantial interview with the authors. Caruncho's gardens range from small urban spaces to grand country estates, and his design trademarks include geometric grids, rolling waves of the shrub escallonia, refined and playful pavilions and gazebos, calm reflecting pools, and vistas that capitalize on the contrasts inherent in his plant palette. In their inventive and evocative fusion of the historic and contemporary, Caruncho's garden designs are masterful compositions that exemplify the formal garden for the new millennium.