Combining the restoration of historic landscapes with radical new designs, Kim Wilkie's work for private clients ranges from Heveningham, where he implemented Capability Brown's plans, to a massive new landform work, Orpheus, for the Duke of Buccleuch at Boughton House. Public works include new designs for Hyde Park Corner and a new courtyard for the V & A, the restoration of the Villa La Pietra, Florence, for New York University and the strategic masterplan for the world heritage site at the Solovetski Archipelago, Russia.
This is Kim Wilkie's first book, and will be a major contribution to the literature on landscape, sustainability, regeneration, and design. In Led by the Land he looks back at more than twenty years at the forefront of his profession, and forward to projects which are ongoing, or now in development, including Botanic Gardens in Moscow and Oxford, the redevelopment of Chelsea Barracks and a new cemetery for the City of London.
In astonishingly vivid terms, Kim Wilkie explores how 'landscape is a kind of riddle: it changes with every cloud and mood, and yet it is timeless and stationary'. Drawing on a wide range of research, reference points, insights, conversations and practical experiences, he reveals that the key to his work is 'to listen to the stories and then continue the tale, allowing the memory and imagination of what has gone before to inspire fresh design in the evolving pattern.' With some 250 plans and colour photographs, including specially commissioned aerial photography of several major works, this an especially rich account of an unusual talent.
