About this talk

Running time: 28 minutes

The late Preben Jakobsen, who died in 2012, was a Danish landscape architect who trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Britain, and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. He practised in England from 1969 in partnership with his wife Margaret, a trained British architect, and they won many awards.

"To produce good landscape" he says in his talk "it is essential to have order, structure and a design skeleton, the underlying geometric principle". A romantic at heart, he adds "You have to interest yourself in the geometry of the world, the dice of the gods, the Platonic solids". He tells us where he finds inspiration for his landscape-making which he considers an art form based, nevertheless, on technical know-how.

He excels in the use of plant material - "the small things in landscape are as important as the overall concept: it is they that go to make the whole"- and he illustrates some of his own designs as well as those of other people.

The talk was recorded in his office in Cheltenham, so has some unavoidable background sounds.

Please note that a transcript of this talk is available - please contact us for further details.