Bruce Ginsberg's Hampshire garden: a masterclass in lost landscape design

Architect Gabriele Mulè profiles the private garden of Bruce Ginsberg in Hampshire, England, arguing that contemporary public gardens have abandoned the pursuit of beauty. Ginsberg's garden, planted over thirty years and maintained with two gardeners, embodies the Eastern concept of sharawadgi—the art of planting without apparent order—introduced to the West by Sir William Temple in 1685. The design features fluid curves, a 17th-century garden knot, an ars topiaria hedge labyrinth inspired by Renaissance mathematics, a Tibetan stupa, and a miniature Chinese pavilion. Ginsberg follows the plants' natural inclinations, creating informal volumes that respond to sun and wind. The garden also includes a spiral path ascending an artificial mound built from excavated soil of an ancient Catholic fishpond. Mulè criticizes modern public parks for prioritizing lifestyle ornamentation over genuine aesthetic research, and calls for a return to experimentation and beauty in landscape architecture.