"Gardens for the Future: Gestures Against the Wild examines new trends in landscape design at a moment when the possibilities of both public and private garden space are continually being redefined.". "The first half of the book focuses on recent developments in garden design: new aesthetic principles and materials, new functions and contexts. Artistic movements such as abstraction, conceptual art, minimalism, and land art present provocative visual precedents. Industrial and high-tech materials - chain-link fencing, artificial fog, plastics, fiber optics - share the stage with plants, which have themselves become the subject of exploration and innovation. The importance of the site, whether ecological, geological, or historical, is a significant influence on landscape architecture. And three twentieth-century garden designers - Luis Barragan, Isamu Noguchi, and Roberto Burle Marx - continue to inspire the evolution of contemporary landscape design." "Twenty case studies illustrating these themes, accompanied by color photographs, plans, sketches, and models, comprise the second half of the book."--BOOK JACKET.