We head to Chile for an in conversation with Teresa Moller, the renowned landscape architect. For Teresa, a careful observation and awareness of the landscape is the key for developing social-culture projects and bringing nature accessible to people. Teresa will be talking to Tom Stuart-Smith, the landscape designer and trustee of the Garden Museum.
Since the founding of Teresa Moller Studio in 1990, the diverse landscapes of Chile have been the centre and inspiration for many projects. Through images and videos, Tom and Teresa discuss Teresa’s work, her hopes, fears and new ambitions for the year ahead. The wilderness of Chile’s landscapes, from the Atacama Desert to the Andes and the Northern Lakes provide a distinct palette of plants and materials. Wilderness is prevalent in Chile, and this in-conversation with Tom Stuart-Smith look in detail at the way Teresa’s work provides people with the ability to enter nature with just the slightest designed intervention.
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Teresa Moller
Bio »Teresa Moller
Teresa has been working in the field of Landscape Architecture for the past 30 years. She strongly believes in the power of simplicity. For her, a careful observation and awareness of the landscape is the key for developing social-culture projects and bringing nature accessible to people. The most important aspect of her work is to find what is on site and what is needed to bring people to experience nature.
Teresa has always marveled at the luck she has being able to work in the wide range of landscapes that exist in Chile. In her words the variable landscapes in Chile have taught her everything as she has to often meet the extreme differences in environments from working in the desert of Northern Chile to the rain forests in Southern Chile
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Tom Stuart-Smith
Bio »Tom Stuart-Smith
Tom Stuart-Smith is a landscape architect whose work is characterised by strong contrasts between built form and naturalistic planting. Tom read Zoology at Cambridge before completing a postgraduate degree in Landscape Design at the University of Manchester. He worked for several years at Hal Moggridge and Elizabeth Banks Associates before setting up his own practice in London in 1998.
Tom has since designed parks, gardens and landscapes throughout Europe, India, USA and Caribbean. Significant projects in the public domain have included the Queen’s Jubilee garden at Windsor Castle to mark the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire, the Bicentenary Glasshouse Garden at Wisley for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and on a smaller scale, the Keepers House Garden at the Royal Academy of Arts. International projects have included Le Jardin Secret in the heart of the Medina in Marrakech, a garden located on the waterways near Kottayam in Kerala, India, and a show garden for the international horticulture exhibition at IGA Berlin 2017. Current projects include a garden square at King’s Cross in London for Argent LLP and the Aga Khan Foundation, several projects at Chatsworth, a garden for the Scottish baronial estate of Aldourie Castle, a new public garden at the Hepworth Gallery Wakefield, and the masterplan for the RHS’s gardens at Bridgewater (near Salford) which is the largest new garden project in the UK.
Tom has also designed eight award winning gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show all of which were presented with gold medals and three ‘Best in Show’. In 2018, Tom was delighted to return to the Chelsea Flower Show after eight years absence to create The Weston Garden, celebrating 60 years of the Garfield Weston Foundation.