Based in London, Pearson's practice is 'committed to creating better environments for wildlife and people' and making 'as gentle a mark on the land as possible.' Pearson is incredibly conscientious of nature, and works with it instead of against the grain 'Work with nature rather than dominate it,'(Pearson, 2007). His appreciation for natural landscapes and land forms along with his plant knowledge form his primary inspiration for projects.
He uses ecological and sustainable design principles, and creates designs that are site specific and that work with the sense of place found at the original site; creating gardens and parks that are 'working with the existing...evoking an emotional response.' (Pearson, 2007).
Pearson also likes to create a seamless transition between indoor and outdoor spaces, and encourages Architects to work with his team from the start of their projects, so that the building has a relationship with its surrounding environment.
Pearson started gardening at a young age, encouraged by his parents who were ‘relaxed gardeners’ and made sure that their children were always surrounded with plants and the outdoors. However Pearson’s main inspirations were his two friends and elderly neighbours, who introduced Pearson to naturalistic planting, plant combinations, shows and competitions, and the importance of understanding where plants originate from and how they grow in the wild (Pearson, 2009).
Pearson trained at RHS Wisley, Edinburgh Botanic Garden, and studied at Kew Royal Botanical Garden. Through inspirational scholarship trips to Europe and the Himalayas, he built up his plant knowledge and understanding for plants in their own environments, and how to read a landscape and capture its sense of place.
Dan Pearson is a Member of the Society of Garden Designers, currently a weekly columnist in the Observer, (previously The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times). He is on the Editorial Board of Gardens Illustrated Magazine, and has created 5 award winning Chelsea gardens. He is joint author to the books; Garden Doctors, Bradley, Boxtree, and The Essential Garden Book, Conran, Octopus. He is also author of The Garden; A year at Home Farm, and his newest book Spirit; Garden Inspiration.
Once reading Spirit, and watching a video of Dan Pearson explaining his book and philosophy, I got a sense of the enormous amount of thinking Pearson puts into his projects. He is fascinated with the idea of sense of place and what makes a place particular.His main message to people is to 'take the time to look' at a landscape, really get to feel, smell, and experience the landscape you are in, in-order to understand how it is different from another and think about the things that make that landscape unique, give it identity and character. Then incorporate these aspects in your designs to ground your work, only working with things that feel appropriate to that space; such as local materials, and plants that suit the conditions or micro-climate(s) in your site.
His original website is reasonably easy to navigate as the images and text are always in the same postion and have the same layout.
The photographs are on a slide show, but there is an option for the user to control the images and flick between them manually. This allows the user to view his work at their own pace, and take in the images and text.
The writing and explanation of projects does not seem to have much space, and it is sometimes difficult to connect the writing to the images shown. However, the language used in the text is easy to understand, and a client could get a lot of information from this.
This older website does show examples of his drawings, and plans for past projects, which is interesting for clients to see. His drawings range from loose sketches and carefully hand rendered plans, to beautiful visionary sketches and technical, smooth, computer-generated plans.
The simple website layout is easy to use, however, I feel is a little dated and Pearson is a prolific writer, which doesn't come across as there is not enough room for his text.
There is a continous slideshow of images of his work on the home page, from which the user can get an idea of his past work and the kinds of projects and plantings his uses.
There are descriptions of each project, which lead you to a separate page, with no flashing images, and this allows the user to read and understand the ideas and thought process of Dan on each project. This is much improved from the older website, as the words have a lot more space and Pearson has been able to expand the explanations of the projects.There are no images of his work-in-progress, drawings, sketches, or plans on this newer website, which is a shame.
Examples of Dan Pearson's work;
Takachi Millenium Forest, Hokkaido, Japan
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| Plan of 'Earth garden' (Pearson, D. 2007) |
The aim of the park is to be sustainable for 1000 years, off-setting the carbon footprint of the owner's newspaper industry as well as providing a place for people to interact with nature, ecology and creating an educational landscape in which a range of outdoor activities can take place; 'encouraging visitors to respect and take responsibility for their natural surroundings' (Pearson, 2007).
Included in the park master-plan are areas for people to explore and engage with river systems, the surrounding forest, meadows, gardens and farm (Tokachi Millenium Forest, 2006).
The plan above shows Pearson's design for the ‘Earth garden’, an earthwork which uses sculpted landforms to integrate a restaurant building into a surrounding mountainous landscape and also encloses an ornamental perennial garden which educates visitors about native flora from the forest (Pearson, 2007).
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| Sketch of 'Earth Garden' (Pearson, D. 2007) |
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| Model of Landforms (Pearson, D. 2007) |
Pearson wanted to capture the wind blowing from the surrounding mountains and forest, and used longer grasses in his design so that they would sway in the wind. He also wanted to capture the strong sunlight of Tokachi, and created deep contrasts with the shadows created by the landforms, shown in the photograph below.(Tokachi Millenium Forest, 2006)
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| 'Earth Garden' Landforms (Pearson, D. 2007) |
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| Millenium Forest Walk (Pearson, D. 2007) |
Maggie Cancer Caring Centre, Charing Cross, London
Maggie Centre's are named after Maggie Keswick, wife of landscape designer Charles Jencks. They aim to help people with, and affected by cancer, to be healthy in mind and body, by providing a non-institutional friendly environment that they can relax and recover in.Dan Pearson designed the landscaping surrounding the unique building in order to integrate it with the Charing Cross Hospital site.
The aim was to create 'lush' green planting that would help be therapeutic in the healing factor of the space.
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| Plan of showing Maggie Centre garden and building (Pearson, D. 2007) |
Pearson has thought about the planting in this design in-order that it is calming and relaxing for the occupants/visitors.
A meandering woodland walk with decorative groundcover, leads up to the centre from the main hospital campus.
A public courtyard is surrounded by white flowering shrubs and perrenials, providing a calming atmosphere.
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| Plan showing internal gardens in Maggie Centre (Pearson, D. 2007) |
Internal small courtyards and gardens open to the elements provide protected external rooms allowing for year round interest.
There have been many reviews on this garden, explaining the importance of green spaces and their potential for healing.
However there are some negative reviews of this space. Bridget Rosewell writes on Thinking Gardens how she experienced the supposedly therapeutic space;
'I reflected on what was wrong here. I concluded that there were three things lacking. They are green, seating and a place to cry. Greenery carries huge symbolism of hope and in a winter garden gives structure and density. It is no accident that so many successful gardens have yew hedges. Seats give the opportunity to meditate, to doze and to absorb the reality of growth and renewal. A place to cry is denied by the busyness of hospitals and the necessity of treatment. But recovery requires it and it in turn requires privacy and hidden corners.' (Rosewell, B. 2009).Rosewell does admit that she visited in January, however also points out that even on the dullest days of the year this garden in particular should be able to provide joy and hope for patients and visitors.
The garden is now more established and other reviews from the same website suggest that the work that Dan Pearson has done, on a small budget and with a difficult urban site, is successful. Kim Wilkie believes this is so because of the simple planting combinations, 'warm colours of the walls' and relaxing meandering pathway through the trees, takes you 'into a place which is very different from the harsh clatter of NHS wards' (Wilkie, 2009)
References; Pearson, D. and Bradley, S.1996, Garden Doctors, Boxtree, London
Pearson, D. 2001, The Garden; A Year at Home Farm, Ebury Press, London
Pearson, D. 2009, Spirit Garden Inspiration, Fuel, London
Pearson, D. 2007 Dan Pearson Studio http://www.danpearsonstudio.com/index_02.html
Pearson, D. 2011 Dan Pearson Studio http://www.danpearsonstudio.com/
Rosewell, B. 2009 Thinking Gardens http://thinkingardens.co.uk/reviews/garden-by-dan-pearson-for-the-maggie-centre-charing-cross-london/
Tokachi Millenium Forest, 2006 Hokkaido Garden http://www.tmf.jp/garden/index_en.html
Wilkie, K. 2009 Thinking Gardens http://thinkingardens.co.uk/letters/kim-wilkie-on-the-maggie-centre/
