Bali Style Magazine, September/October 2005 Modern Tropical Garden Design POST ZEN

“A modern tropical garden does not need to be ugly…” says noted landscape designer and garden historian Made Wijaya in his forthcoming book Modern Tropical Garden Design published by Editions Didier Millet and Wijaya Words. Below are excerpts from the book, courtesy of the publishers.
Text Made Wijaya Photography courtesy of Wijaya Words.

Tajima House garden by PT. Wijaya with gate by Indonesian sculptor, Pintor Sirait

I AM NOT A GREAT FAN OF MODERN GARDENS.
What passes as “different” is often just ugly, architect-driven, and littered with bad modern art and stiff furniture. The word “tropical” has been overused of late too, as a euphemism for the treeless and the soul-less, as in: “Not so much Thai (or Balinese, or Malaysian), as “ tropical “.
Amongst all the derivative design drivel of the past five years’ obsession with “Zen” there are some flavorsome alternatives to the tense making, loveless environments being served up as gardens by today’s uber-chic architects and trendoid garden designers.
God bless them for trying…a few small ideas can go a long way.

Taj Wellington Mews Gardens, Bombay
PT. Wijaya's Tajima House, Palo Alto, USA	Villas at the Ritz-Carton, Bali, Photo by Rio Helmi

The English believe that a good garden is a perfect blend of the natural and the man-made. I find that modern gardens tend to suffer from an excess of the mad-made in the form of loud water features, with their attendant pumps and filters and an overabundance of hardscape and stiff “architectural planting”, of stiff architectural plants.

A modern garden can be poetic and romantic. A modern tropical garden does not have to look like lime green letterset. Tropical plants are not old-fashioned, just because they tend to be colourful and exuberant; young progressives need not fear the ridicule of their peers if they rejoice in nature.

The gardens of famed Japanese American designer Naguchi for noted architects Scidmore Owings Merrill in San Francisco in the 1950s, in particular and the work of Brazilian artist Roberto Burle Marx all over the tropical American during most of the 20 th century are notable exceptions, as is the outstanding work of garden designers Raymond Jungles of Florida and Bill Bensley of Bangkok.

The buzz phrases for the landscape modernist are ‘seamless’, ‘streamlined’ and ‘restricted’ as in seamless hardscape, streamlined form and restricted plant palette but a good garden designer, be he a minimalist or a full-blooded romantic, should never forget that the garden designer’s main job is to enhance and complement the architecture. It is rare that a modern garden has chance to stand on its own, as it were; it is more often a crutch for overly distinctive architecture. A good garden design needs to achieve a harmonious balance between the house and its surroundings.

Garden designers used to wave wands like Merlins of the mulch to soften the architecture and provide the kiss of centuries. The only century the modernists want to know about is the 21 st; and the only wand they wave these days is a Blackberry stylus, but light and magic can still be achieved.

Today’s modernist of Singapore – the heroes of the New Asian Fascistionista Movement, and its highly strung sisters across the equator – may today try to hoodwink yuppies into accepting drawing board derivative instead of artful natural outdoor environments but one day soon the nature lover gene will once again kick in and horticultural admiration will once again be