Unconventional, anti-establishment, punk. That’s how the landscape designers of TERREMOTO, a collective with 28 members that has been operating in California for 12 years, with branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, like to describe themselves. Their manifesto is so transgressive and contradictory that it reads in a way like poetry: “In the garden anything goes,” they tell us from their studio in America, “so long as it is conceived with love, respecting the place to be redefined and the people physically involved in the project. And doing as little as possible. The focus is on limiting the physical and material impact from both the ecological and the spiritual viewpoint, finding ways to reconcile the interventions with what is on the site. Only in this way are we able to explore new and exciting aesthetic territories, gnawing on the bones of Modern and Postmodern landscapes, considering new, inverted futures for the Baroque and the Picturesque and pillaging the tattered fuselage of worlds East and West.”

Theirs is a precise language of landscape design, made up of key principles rather than a specific aesthetic narrative about what it is good and right to do in a garden. “We have no particular identifiable style,” they explain “because beauty is diverse, and because ‘having a particular style’ sounds very boring.” All this is a reflection of a clear, if aesthetically mutable vision that can be summed up in a few overarching themes: fluid integration of the project into the surrounding landscape; the desire to create a haven of greenery that is lush, agreeable and a bit wild; the choice to utilize native plants or ones suited to the region; the use of local and natural materials; attention to the needs of the place’s users – be they the clients or the wildlife, regarded as the “non-human fellow tenant of every garden.”

The garden constructed by the actor of the 1920s Julian Eltinge: TERREMOTO added pollinator-friendly and drought-resistant flowers. (ph. Caitlin Atkinson)

A prime example is the restyling of a private park in Angelino Heights, Los Angeles. “The garden was much neglected and not very liveable, and the owners wanted to add a small swimming pool with areas for relaxation, while preserving the wild look of the place. To achieve this aim it was essential to take our inspiration from the local flora. We wanted the botanical expression of the garden to be appropriate to the region, with a low or zero consumption of water, and to be able to support non-human life. The result is a mix of drought-resistant plants indigenous to California and Australia. A modern green oasis that can enjoyed all year round.”
The distinctive trait of the collective – notwithstanding its sometimes rough exterior – is a declaration of love for nature and for the people who are living in it now, or will do so in the future. “It is our goal to build gardens not (only) for this civilization, but rather the next; and to destroy the system (when necessary) with love and kindness.”

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