Garden Futures

In many cultures, the garden has been a paradise and a place of refuge, a reflection of identities, dreams and visions, a world in miniature. Be it a strictly arranged work of art or a naturalistic perennial paradise: the form that people give to their gardens always reveals their own relationship to nature – and sometimes that of entire cultures and eras.

The exhibition Garden Futures: Designing with Nature traces this relationship across time and societies. In small details and in big ideas, in guerilla gardens, on suburban lawns, and in artistic endeavours, it explores where the design ideals for today's gardens come from, and looks for new models.

For many artists, designers and landscape architects, the garden has always been much more than a romantic retreat – it is a testing ground for new ideas, a place to imagine and achieve a better future. Today, in the face of climate crisis, globalization, and food insecurity, the garden has again become a laboratory for new concepts of sustainability and social justice, a place of hope and promise.

Garden Futures: Designing with Nature at Vandalorum is made possible by:
Sweden Green House, Hasselfors Garden, Mats Skogsfors, Tore G Wärenstam Foundation

Thanks to: The Swedish Energy System, Hjalmar Wicander's Fund, Bertil & Britt Svensson Foundation for Lighting Technology, Mark & Miljö, Växtia, S:t Eriks, Nelson Garden, Bara Mineraler, Fiskars, Kvadrat, Johan Sjöberg, the Design Museum in Helsinki and the Finnish Architecture Museum in Helsinki

The exhibition is curated by:
Vitra Design Museum: Viviane Stappmanns, Nina Steinmüller
Nieuwe Instituut: Marten Kuijpers, Maria Heinrich

^{Photo credit:
Photos Vandalorum: Patrik Lindell
Piet Oudolf, Oudolf Garden at Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein, 2020 © Vitra, photo by Dejan Jovanovic
Stefano Boeri, Bosco Verticale, Milan, 2014 © Stefano Boeri Architetti, photo The Blink Fish, 2018
Kieran Dodds, Debre Ensesa, Ethiopia, 2018, photo by Kieran Dodds
Piet Oudolf's garden at Vandalorum, photo Deltavormgroep/Vandalorum
Jamaica Kincaid in her garden, Vermont, photo: Rob Woolmington
Ulla Molin's garden in Höganäs, photo Gabriella Dahlman
Derek Jarman, Prospect Cottage Garden at Dungeness, Kent, UK, designed from 1986, foto: Howard Sooley, 1993}