
PIET OUDOLF
Garden Designer
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On Redefining Landscapes, Taking Risks, Craftsmanship, and Intuition
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Piet Oudolf is one of the most influential landscape designers of our time. Known for his groundbreaking work on the High Line in New York and the Lurie Garden in Chicago, his naturalistic planting style has redefined public and private landscapes worldwide.
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In this episode, Piet reflects on his decades-long career, from his early days working in a bar to discovering his passion for plants and design. He shares the risks and leaps of faith that shaped his journey, the importance of failure in creative work, and how he has maintained his drive and curiosity well into his late 80s. We also discuss his partnership with his wife, Anja, who played a crucial role in his success, and the balance between artistic integrity and working with clients.
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PIET OUDOLF
Garden Designer
15
15
01
EP TITLE
On Redefining Landscapes, Taking Risks, Craftsmanship, and Intuition
EP TITLE
Piet Oudolf is one of the most influential landscape designers of our time. Known for his groundbreaking work on the High Line in New York and the Lurie Garden in Chicago, his naturalistic planting style has redefined public and private landscapes worldwide.
EP TITLE
In this episode, Piet reflects on his decades-long career, from his early days working in a bar to discovering his passion for plants and design. He shares the risks and leaps of faith that shaped his journey, the importance of failure in creative work, and how he has maintained his drive and curiosity well into his late 80s. We also discuss his partnership with his wife, Anja, who played a crucial role in his success, and the balance between artistic integrity and working with clients.
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WHY I ASKED THIS GUEST
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Today I'm joined by Peter Adolf, a visionary garden designer whose work has transformed how we experience landscapes known for projects like a eyeliner in New York and Ry Garden in Chicago. Peter spent decades redefining the relationship between plant spaces and emotion.
In this episode, we dive into his early challenges and creative breakthroughs. He shares how taking risks shape his craftsmanship career, and what the vital role is of intuition in great design.
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LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
RECOMMENDED CLIPS
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DO OR DIE / A OR B
Are you more rational or emotional?
Piet: Both.
Practical or romantic?
Both.
Structure or color, both controlled the narrative or let the garden tell its own story?
A little bit of both.
Cherish the process or cherish the result.
Result and process.
Your work primarily recognized for its ecological impact or its aesthetic beauty.
Both.
Design one final, groundbreaking garden or curate and refine all your previous works?
I would like to have a new project and I think the gardeners that don't work well or refine my own gardens will take a lifetime again to get them where they were. 'cause gardeners have their own life, and also they need to have their own life to change the right way for the legacy.
The gardens will be taken care of, the gardeners. And is there a wish from you that it's maintained the same way or just let it go?
Let it grow into the future. I would say so. Let it grow by the good hands of bareness and into something that still is good and especially beautiful because you can imagine and trees grow up with the plants underneath, don't like it that or and years. So you have to change your plans. And if I look back to all the plants of what I've done and no garden looks the same anymore, and you can just rip it out and put it all over from your original design. So that's it.
Focus on mentoring young designers or document your life's work?
Both.
Your gardens and your true maintenance or wild and natural growth?
Wild and natural growth doesn't exist because then our garden ends up in metals and BLEs. So, it's always gardens, our gardens and garden. I'll say it's a place where you feel good in and it's extruded from nature, a place for yourself. So you have to treat it, you know, like, you treat yourself and in the best way. So environmentally, right, ecologically, right. And that just wildlife allowed, I see that in that sense. So it's not, Corning is about control. You cannot let it go.
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SEASON
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