“That’s my favorite way of building gardens: developing them bit by bit so that you get a better feel for the space.” This quote comes from Alexander Koch, owner of the garden and landscape architecture firm Koch + Koch in Pähl am Ammersee. His design for a house garden in the Nuremberg area won over the […]
“That’s my favorite way of building gardens: developing them bit by bit so that you get a better feel for the space.” This quote comes from Alexander Koch, owner of the garden and landscape architecture firm Koch + Koch in Pähl am Ammersee.
His design for a house garden in the Nuremberg area won over the jury for this year’s “Gardens of the Year” award. There, in this large garden of a house from the 1940s, he was able to proceed in exactly the same way: Step by step, he changed it, thinned it out, planted new plants and worked on creating space. The initial situation was quite challenging: the trees were outdated, the lines of sight were largely overgrown and the terrain with its 10-metre difference in height also presented him with challenges. Which he solved convincingly. Around the framework of an old magnolia, a field maple and a lime tree, he composed a new garden “with a good sense of design”, as the jury put it. Now, for example, you can see across white flowering hydrangea fields to the pool garden, but no longer to the new building on the neighboring property due to a dense planting of rhododendrons and field maples. This opening up and simultaneous shielding also appealed to the jury, who emphasized the “enchanted and secure atmosphere” in the garden. Which can still be developed further. The next step is to fit a new extension into the garden. Alexander Koch will therefore continue to work on and with the garden.
This is the third time that Callwey Verlag and Garten + Landschaft have awarded the prize. In addition to the 1st prize, the jury also awarded 5 prizes, all of which were presented on February 7 at Schloss Dyck. And as in previous years, the “Gardens of the Year” documentation of the same name will be published by Callwey Verlag.
Partner Gardens of the Year:
Garten + Landschaft, Mein schöner Garten, Gartenpraxis, BGL Bundesverband Garten-Landschafts- und Sportplatzbau e.V., bdla Bund Deutscher Landschaftsarchitekten, DGGL Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gartenkunst und Landschaftsarchitektur e.V., KANN GmbH Baustoffe, Hofquartier and Schloss Dyck
Picture credits:
Neubauer, Konstanze/Luckner, Ferdinand Graf: Gardens of the Year 2018; Alexander Koch
