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Kim Wilkie: Led by the Land

Our 2020 programme begins with an evening with renowned landscape architect Kim Wilkie, celebrating the publication of an updated version of his classic book, ‘Led by the Land’.

Kim is revered for his unusual vision and acute grasp of how people have moulded their environment over the centuries. Admired for his impressive projects including Orpheus, a 60 metre inverted pyramid carved out of the ground at Boughton House (host to the 2016 Garden Museum Literary Festival), Wilkie has taken his genius to many parts of the world – including the United States, Chile, Russia, Transylvania, Italy, the Middle East, and the very edge of the Arctic Circle.

This reissue of his book ‘Led by the Land’ has been expanded to include fresh thoughts on farming, settlement and new projects, both huge and intimate, from the designs for new cities in Oman and England to the Swansea Maggie’s Centre, and from plans for London’s Natural History Museum grounds to the sculptural setting of a furniture factory in Leamington Spa.

Kim will give a talk, followed by the opportunity to ask questions and sign books, which will be available to purchase from the Garden Museum Shop.

Speaker bio

  • Kim Wilkie

    Kim Wilkie

    After 25 years of running his own practice, Kim now works as a strategic and conceptual landscape consultant. He collaborates with architects and landscape architects around the world and combines designing with the muddy practicalities of running a small farm in Hampshire, where he is now based.

    Kim studied history at Oxford and landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, before setting up his landscape studio in London in 1989. He continues to teach and lecture in America; writes optimistically about land and place from Hampshire; and meddles in various national committees on landscape and environmental policy in the UK.