The Daily Telegraph Garden

"It's easy to say that you are inspired by modern architecture, design and culture. Who isn't? Renaissance gardens were built on ideas of architecture and were also influenced by the surrounding landscape and the notion of pruning nature in order to control it.

The famous Japanese artist, sculptor and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi transformed nature and created new landscapes in his many works. Both Italian gardens and Noguchi's works are my inspiration for The Daily Telegraph Garden because they use architecture in combination with a sense of theatre. They both want to contrast horticulture and nature by pruning plants.

My gardens and parks include an awareness of the huge variations in nature, culture and climate from the north to the south of Sweden. I always aim to achieve a distinctive character in each project. Swedish nature is present in all my designs due to the use of beautiful, natural, long lasting materials – notably timber, steel and granite. The planting is designed in the spirit of nature rather than mimicking it.

The roots of architecture in Sweden are from the Gustavian era [circa 1772-1809] and the modernism of the1950s – strong, elegant and sustainable - and that's how I want my designs to be, whether in a public space or a private garden."