The Alnwick Garden, Jacques Wirtz and Tadao Ando

Alnwick Castle Garden

Does Alnwick have the greatest garden made in the twentieth century?

Most of the people I have asked find the Alnwick Garden very disappointing, as I do. The Telegraph reported in 2003 that ‘The Duchess of Northumberland has launched a scathing and bitter attack on “bitchy” and “snobby” gardeners in the south in a riposte to critics of her lavish £42 million “people’s garden” at Alnwick. The Duchess, whose garden has attracted 300,000 visitors in the past four months, making it the third most popular in Britain, said that she was dismayed by the sniping since starting the renovation project seven years ago’. An exception to all this ‘snobby’ and ‘bitchy’ criticism, quoted on the back of Ian August’s book on The making of the Alnwick Garden, comes from the Mail on Sunday. They called it ‘The grandest garden to be built in Europe for more than 100 years … a visionary landscaping project’. Coming from further north, I feel entitled to regard the Duchess as a snobby and bitchy southerner!

My view is that Jacques Wirtz is a good designer but that most of the work was done by his sons. I believe one son holds a qualification in landscape architecture from what is now the Erasmushogeschool in Brussels, and was regarded as a weak student. The other son is an agricultural engineer. Caveat emptor. The Duchess made a big mistake in not appointing Tadao Ando, who was invited to Alnwick. Ian August’s book reports the conversation with Ando. He said ‘”I want to design this whole garden myself. In my opinion, there is no great garden designer alive today” – this sitting next to Jacques Wirtz – “and no great garden has been built in the last hundred years”. We sat, stunned. The insult to the Wirtzes was worse for being so casually delivered, but Ando seemed oblivious’. The simple truth is that Ando, who trained as a carpenter, not an architect, is a great designer and, with help, could have done a really great job. Instead of this, the Duchess has what might be a display garden for an upmarket garden centre and ‘leisure attraction’. The lesson is that a good client, when ‘stunned’ by a good designer, should pause for thought. A week’s meditation in a hotel designed by Tadao Ando might helped to concentrate her mind.

35 thoughts on “The Alnwick Garden, Jacques Wirtz and Tadao Ando

  1. Jill

    I have visited Alnwick many times and agree that it always feels disappointing – less than the sum of its showcase, grandiose parts. To me, it feels piecemeal – with big names brought in to design set pieces, but no overall flow or emotion in the garden.
    I’m Welsh and my hubby is a Geordie, so neither of us are snobby southerners, and we really want to like a major garden created more or less from scratch in a contemporary style, but it’s just so hard to love. Choosing someone like Tadao Ando might just have brought the duchess the visionary garden she hoped for.

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  2. Christine

    Possibly the difficulty with Alnwick is that it is ‘traditional’ enough in it evocation (it doesn’t really feel like a contemporary garden), but without the strength and depth of execution normally found in traditional gardens.

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Yes, it is ‘just’ a pattern on the ground, disconnnected alike from the art/beliefs/uses/tecnhology which created historic styles and those which (should) create gardens in our own time. One thinks of John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection (“Neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring”). [The explanation of the old saying is unsatisfactory: it is said to describe the food which monks ate: they did not eat fish, because they abstained from meat; they did not what the aristocracy ate (flesh, or meat), they did not even eat red herring, which was cheap. I think it might have been a fine thing (and closer to an Ando design) if the Alnwick garden had used a late-monastic blend of luxury and austerity.
      Businesses often find that the children of the founder lack the talents of the founder. It is even less common for the children of an artist to have their parent’s talent – and I think this was the Duchess’s most glaring mistake – perhaps understandable for someone married to the 30th Duke of Northumberland!

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  3. Christine

    I agree that the design of Jubilee Park leaves much to be desired. Perhaps this is because the genre of ‘roof gardens’ (particularly on this scale) is relatively new, and a practitioner has not yet emerged who has mastered the essence of what they can and perhaps should be.

    That said, here is an indication (originating in Jubilee Gardens) of what such a garden could (and perhaps does) potentially do well. The Asian version [ http://www.wokmedia.com/?p=117 ] and the UK version [ http://www.wokmedia.com/?p=79 ]. See also [ http://www.dailytonic.com/giant-knitting-nancy-by-superblue-for-the-london-festival-of-architecture-uk/ ]

    Tom, (slightly off topic) do you know where the route for that Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Parade took in London? Not sure I am familiar with the arch? [ http://images.arcadja.com/nash_joseph_jnr_-queen_victoria_s_diamond_jubilee_para~300~10157_20110524_6171_424.jpg ]

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      I agree about the genre of roof gardens: it is poorly understood. But this should not have been a problem for Jubilee Gardens – because they do not have the character of a roof garden, despite this being their technical status. The gardens are popular with sandwich eaters, smokers and mobile phone users.

      It is always nice to stray off topic. Here is the route of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Procession and here is a movie film of the carriages. My Granny watched it!

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  4. Jill

    Tom, you’re right that the pomp of Alnwick is somehow less forgivable than the restrained failings of the Paris garden.
    And thanks for the introduction to Jubilee Park, which I do not know. It looks really nasty! I found this wry description which sums up my response rather well: http://tom-ginnett.blogspot.com/2008/03/jubilee-park-canary-wharf.html No doubt it was inspired in part by the Jardin Atlantique, which – whatever its imperfections – feels to me the right sort of sleek, modern design for such a space. I am also a great fan of the work of Dan Kiley, who frequently produced splendid designs for gardens over parking garages and other rooftops – although of course many of his designs have been badly maintained and subsequently replaced.

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Jill, I really like the category of ‘less forgivable’ and I agree about both Kiley and the Jardin Atlantique. It is interesting that 30 years ago French landscape architecture seemed way behind English landscape architecture but that it now seems way ahead, even in the less-good projects. The comparison is well illustrated by the work of Allain Provost (1) his basic idea, of a rectangle sliced by a diagonal, came from the Derek Lovejoy design for Cergy Pointoise (2) Provost took the idea further and better with Parc Citroen (3) when Provost brought the idea back to London, at the Thames Barrier Park, it was less-well implemented than in Paris (4) I think much of the problem is to do with the poor patronage of landscape architecture in England. I have known a lot of talented English landscape architects but they have not received good commissions and have not been sufficiently supported/challenged by their clients. The relationship of artist-designer: patron is crucial (5) another big problem in England is that too many ‘landscape’ competitions have been run by the RIBA Competitions Office and they have required the involvement of architects as lead designers. Architects are often very good designers, and they have made many very good gardens, but they never seem to know know enough about the history and theory of the types of landscape space they design. It is a bit like giving an expert housing architect a commission for a hospital. They would not know enough about the type of space. Perhaps they could learn about hospitals from books? It is much harder to learn about landscape architecture from books: you have to visit and read about the places.

      I attended a lecture Provost gave, about ten years ago, when someone asked him why he always used the same basic geometry. Provost denied it but the plans he showed at the lecture confirmed the questioner’s observation. The sliced diagonal idea came from Geoffrey Collens at what was then Derek Lovejoy and Partners (it is now Capita Symonds).

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  5. Christine

    Yes. Things to notice, the beefeaters would have had a hard job keeping their bearskin hats clean before the roads were sealed. For ceremonial purposes I suppose most of the person on horses would now be in cars and excepting the royal family?

    The arch in the photograph is not Marble Arch…[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Arch ] I am intrigued.

    I wonder what mood (perhaps their thoughts are reflected in the style of the design) the designers of Jubilee Park were hoping to capture for the office and lunchtime crowds?

    The fact that the park is, if I understand it correctly, also effectively the entrance to Jubilee station suggests that quiet recreation is perhaps not the most appropriate goal to strive for in this garden. Rather it is a collection point (for people coming to the station) and a distribution point (for people going from the station) to their place of work, at least during peak commute times. Which is why perhaps an public art space of temporary exhibtions designed to capture the attention of passersby seems to do well here.

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Christine, one can’t really compain about the function of the space. There is a busy plaza in front of the station entrance and a quiet green garden behind. The problem is that the junior Wirtzes wanted, I think, to carve out a reputation for cutting-edge post-modern whiz-bangs and were not able to pull it off.
      I guess bear-skins are pretty good at shedding dust even if they it ‘shows’ against the black gloss. Re horse-riders, I think it is now regarded as too much of a security risk for royals, though they are all well-seated.

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  6. Christine

    Wellington Arch looks a little different with cyclists parading through and a not so wonderful 1960s piece of modernist architecture to enhance it!
    [ http://jteaseblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/img2008-11-14_00021.jpg ]

    The ’emparkment’ of Wellington Arch seems to have been due to traffic necessities and the Edward the VII not being so fond of the sculpture of the Duke of Wellington.
    [ http://blog.londonconnection.com/?p=15740 ]

    That was one amazing parade route!

    Tom, I agree nothing substitutes for designers visiting the gardens and buildings they read about…that, I think, was the idea behind the Grand Tour.

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      It’s true that both Apsley house and the Wellington Arch suffer from inappropriate contexts. I am also rather sad that the garden of Apsley House, which could be a great Victorian Garden in London, is still reserved for the private use of the Duke’s descendents. They do not live in the house and and so far as I know are hardly ever there. And yes, the modernist architecture does look as though it was conceived as the London branch of the STASI.
      Re parades, I think big cities should be planned for them.

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  7. DAN

    Whilst agreeing with many of the points above – I feel I should stick up for Alnwick in some respects for the commission of the treehouse cafe/restaurant – it is really something and worth visiting just for this.. ..
    hopefully one day in the future they will remove the road adjacent to it and let the woodland surround it completely…

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      I love the idea of a tree house and I rather like the Alnwick tree house from the outside. But from inside it seemd on the gross side of tasteful and a little reminiscent of a set for Pirates of the Caribbean.

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  8. Christine

    Like the client in your blog post Tom I feel like I need to pause for thought…
    [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/204536473/ ] and [ http://www.dezeen.com/2011/07/14/silence-by-tadao-ando-and-blair-associates/ ]

    It is interesting that Tadao Ando’s aesthetic is similtaneously universal (modern), regional (eastern), particular (Japanese) and specific (to Tadao Ando). [ http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/2004/cilt21/sayi_1-2/67-80.pdf ]

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      I agree about Ando’s talents and wonder about the respective roles of nature and nurture: was he just full of talents or does his ability result from his ‘education’ as a a truck driver, boxer, carpenter and model-maker. If ‘education’ has anything to do with it then those of us who do some teaching could well pause for thought.
      I like the idea of a design course which in which site-related sculputure forms a major component. Participants would build outdoor models and then use a portable 3D laser scanner to take them into a CAD programme. After any necessary manipulation they would go to a 3D printer and, only then, to AutoCAD for the generation of plans, sections, elevations etc.
      The Duchess could have made ten landform models (1:20?) in a paddock and then invited a select list of competitors to spend a week on site building models of their proposed gardens. Each would have got a prize and the winner would have seen his/her scheme built.

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  9. Christine

    I suppose a variety of skills useful for a designer are learnt from a background like Ando’s: independence and self reliance as a truck driver, ‘fighting’ skills as a boxer, problem solving and craft skills as a carpenter and three dimensional visualisation and scale relationships as a model-maker.

    None of which I imagine quite adds up to the quality you call talent.

    Agreed a site related sculpture course would be a brilliant course for designers to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between physical modelling and virtual modelling and the resolution of construction drawings.

    Can I suggest another stage to your competition proposal? Perhaps the competitors could also spend a week camping on the site before the week of building models of their proposed gardens. What prize was the Duchess proposing for the runnerups in the select list?

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Living in a tent is a very useful addition, though I think it might be sufficient for entrants to the Alnwick Castle Garden Re-design Competition to live in tents during the model-building week. In addition to the obvious stock of model-making materials, I would give each competitor a low-voltage lighting system so that they could work after dark. I have often noticed that designing with light (eg with white chalk on black paper) is closer to designing with space than drawing on white paper with dark inks.
      An economical prize for runners-up would be an all-inclusive holiday package for two in one of the state bedrooms. I have not been inside the Castle but judging from the air photo the Duchess probably has some spare rooms on most nights http://www.northofthetyne.co.uk/Images/Alnwick%20Castle/AlnwickCastlePCAir.jpg. If she would like me to enter the competition (unlikely) then I would rather sleep in a dungeon and spend the week in the library http://www.countrylifeimages.co.uk/ResizedImages/Large/647320.jpg with the bookcases unlocked.

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  10. Christine

    Gosh, a dungeon! Not my choice of places to sleep…although I do agree with you about the library. [ http://www.medieval-castle.com/viewcastle.aspx?id=135 ]

    My reason for suggesting camping out in the grounds, and just experiencing ‘the outdoors’, is that you get to experience the garden as the plants and animals would…sun, rain, wind, sunrise, sunset, starry skies and all that. You will hear nature, the birds in the morning and at night and any other of the animals that live on the estate.

    If you are new to the experience a ‘soft’ way into the experience is a safari tent. [ http://www.haven.com/accommodation/safari-tents.aspx ] Because they are demountable, the Duchess could remove the tents after the first week. Drawing, photographing and sound recording would be useful on the first week. (So I agree the competitors would need a low-voltage lighting system). The competitors could then perhaps find accommodation in the castle for the second week and access the library for the designing and model-making stage.

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Maybe you are right and I should ask for a donjon in its Norman sense (of Keep) instead of its modern English sense (underground prison) – but prisons can become reasonable hotels, like Långholmen – The Green Island. I would also be quite happy staying in a luxury safari tent if it had a nice soft mattress and a WiFi connection – access to the books would be the main thing. No doubt I could find them all in a good reference library but that would not be nearly such a good experience as reading them in the right place.
      Note to managers of stately homes: please will you publish catalogues of the books in your libraries so that I can look them up in public libraries. Books are meant to be read and far too many of you keep them permanently locked in cages. Or, if you insist on imprisonment, please will you scan the books and make them available on the web, like Googlebooks.
      Re design competitions, I am wondering if the Gardenvisit Bloggers should set up a consultancy service. We could start by offering a free service to unimaginative duchesses who live in medieval castles. Then we could grow the business into an International Office for the Management of Competitions for Context-Sensitive Sites (IOMCCSS) – pronunciation simplified to Omsk. I think a lot of competitions suffer from inadequate, vague and restrictive briefs. We could help make the world a better place. I would happily do the work for $1000/hour.

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  11. Christine

    Yes. Sweden has some interesting accommodation options. This blog post is written by a keen occupant of the YHA Af Chapman during her visit to Sweden and shows a few views of the ship and its context in Stockholm harbour. [ http://2004sweden.blogspot.com/ ]. However, the history of the ship while less well known is probably equally interesting.
    [ http://www.mightyseas.co.uk/marhist/whitehaven/wsbc/dunboyne.htm ]

    The managers of stately homes particularly need to ensure they are not taken in by financial bubbles – as there have been some spectacular bubbles in history which have severely dented the fortunes of well to do families. No doubt the libraries of some of the stately homes will have prospectus’ relating to infamous financial catasrophes such as the South Sea Bubble.
    [ http://www.econlib.org/library/Mackay/macEx2.html ] Perhaps they have a manuscript such as the one in the Kress library? [ http://harvardmagazine.com/1999/05/damnd.html ] If so, they could donate it to the Kress collection or begin a specialised economics library modelled on the Kress collection at their estate. [ http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/collections/kress/ ]

    Tom, it seems you would be just the person to start a briefing consultancy to make the world a better place!

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      I wish they kept the QEII in London and used her as a hotel. In fact I would like the downstream reach of the River Thames (ie east of Greenwich) to be a museum of old ships. Some could be used as hotels, prisons etc and others could be allowed to rot into the mud. I did not know that the Af Chapman began life as a British ship. It could be a great photoshop project for my old age to find images of ships-awaiting-destruction and locate them in the Thames estuary.
      I am sure you are right that the libraries of stately homes have a wealth of material which is not in public libraries. The ‘guards’, who stand watch in each rooms of houses open to the public, eye me very suspiciously when I ignore their dusky oil paintings and roped-off furniture to peer through the cages and see what books the noble lords have.
      It would take more than one person to run a competitions consultancy and I think that geographical positioning at antipodean poles would be a good start!

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  12. Christine

    Happy to be your antipodean consultant in the running of competitions.

    It is amazing to consider that the Sydney Opera House brief was conceived in 1955, against the historical background illustrated in this youtube clip. [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBp6R79Ejo ]

    The competition winner, Joern Utzon, was announced in 1957.

    Today, the Opera House is only increasing in importance as a landmark of creative thought. [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbx1LBOxA78 ] Credit perhaps to the design conception being “an expression of love.”

    When the Opera House was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in June 2007, it was described as “one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity, not only in the 20th century but in the history of mankind.”

    The Opera House is said to resemble the sails of a ship…(although it continues to inspire creative interpretations [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/wentzelepsy/5100660658/ ] )!

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      It is only right that Utzon’s genius should be remembered but I wonder if more attention should be given to the ‘client side’ of the Opera House (or perhaps it has been, and I have not read about it). On the one hand the client obviously made a brilliant choice but on the other hand: should they have made a deeper investigation of the techical and financial issues? And, had they done so, would the design have been accepted? Perpahs offering a consultancy service for competitions is not such a good idea after all.
      The world as shown in the 1955 film is the world I first became aware of. Seeing it again makes me feel too old.

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  13. Christine

    There are little known facts about the Opera House project. There was no budget for the design competition, so in theory at least there was no budget to break. That is not to say that Utzon did not properly consider the cost of the design.

    However, the project ran into ‘program’ difficulties early on because the then Premier and patron of the project had brain cancer. Starting construction on site, prior to full resolution of the design of the foundations was a political necessity to ensure the project proceded against a hostile Opposition party in the run-up to elections.

    All involved knew changes would have to be made. The change of government meant it was almost nigh impossible to separate the political from the technical and financial outcomes. But suffice to say there was a ratio something like this in Utzon’s favour (x% of the building procured for x% of cost in X% of total project time). I can’t remember the particulars exactly.

    The reason why I think a consultancy service for competitions is a good idea is to set some parameters early on that can serve as yardsticks as the project moves through the process.

    A little like beginning the project management process earlier…but with a designers mind…to the implications of parametres and changes. The design project is often managed, but the total project environment is not. In this context, yes, the client side definitely needs to be given more attention. Client decisions effect time, cost and quality.

    And to ensure the arguments are not about the design.

    It is important to know if the client has good will towards the project and the extent of that good will. The Reichstag by Foster was an important project that was heavily client driven, although unlike Utzon’s project the client remained the same throughout the project.

    If I show you a snapshot of 1920 will you feel young again? [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=684n8FO68LU ] Fortuneately everyone did recover from the wall street crash! In fact New York built its way out of the Depression. [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/40045986@N00/3038736546/ ]

    It is just a matter of good governance, a social conscience, entrepreneurialship and vision!

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  14. Lawrence

    The market gap for competition consultants in the German market started to be filled around 2000. A few architectural offices began offering the service as a sideline and I think that everyone was surprised when this service quickly turned into a full-time occupation. Here are two of the originals: [ http://www.phaseeins.de/profile_e.htm ] [ http://www.drost-consult.de/leistungen_wettbewerbe.php ], both now market leaders. There are now many more, and there are very few even middle-sized competitions that are run without using their services.

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Thank you! I was joking and did not know that the world had any firms which offer a consultancy on competitions. Given the many unfruitful competitions I have read of, I think they are a really good idea.

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  15. Lawrence

    One of the things that I like about this blog is that someone else leads it and that I can contribute or not as the mood takes me. Thank you both for the vote of confidence re. the competition consultancy, and I would be honoured to take a back seat position from which vantage I could offer a point of view whenever I thought I had something useful to say.

    Tom – first the Chelsea Fringe, now Competition Consultants: I feel it is just a matter of time before you have a mould-breaking idea before someone else has had it, and that your chances for a second, prosperous retirement career are therefore very high.

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    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Arnold Weddle told me that he had retired three times and enjoyed each of them more than its predecessor, because he was shedding responsibilities and doing more of what he wanted to do. This pattern appeals to me and I am wondering about re-designing London in Sketchup without any thought whatsoever of any involvement in implementing any ideas I might be lucky enough to have. So I would have to urge Lawrence to take the front seat in ILCC (International Landscape Competition Consultants). But thank you too for the vote of confidence!

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  16. Christine

    I agree. Lawrence is obviously the most ‘international’ of us all and is clearly comfortable in a multidisciplinary context.

    Reply

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