Designers and clients are increasingly committed to innovative outdoor spaces: in cities, the country and private gardens.

Like its successful predecessor Avant Gardeners, this lively volume contains inspiration for everyone from amateur gardeners to urban policy-makers, from plant enthusiasts to hardscape designers. The fifty innovative design firms presented offer a fresh and highly informed overview of today’s leading practitioners, profiling each studio’s work through texts, up-to-date projects, plans and photographs.

The selection spans well-established names, such as Patrick Blanc (France), Fernando Caruncho (Spain), Dan Pearson (UK) and Stephen Stimson (US), to smaller, lesser-known studios, such as Ossart & Maurières (France), Wette + Künecke (Germany) and Landscape India (India).

Thematic essays identify the preoccupations and practices of today’s designers – ranging from creating new landforms to the trend towards landscape urbanism.