European Landscape Designers
On Their Outdoor Furniture Picks

Summer officially starts next week, and Europeans are heading outdoors until further notice. And they are bringing a sense of style with them -- furnishing their outdoor spaces with modern pieces that add contrast and perspective to gardens.

But not all choices work. Furniture designed for the outdoors must compete with nature, architecture and the climate, says Munich-based furniture and product designer Konstantin Grcic. "It requires something different."

So we asked leading European landscape architects and gardeners: What's your favorite new design object for the garden this year? Here's what they chose:

Dan Pearson

"I really learned first about nature rather than gardening," says Dan Pearson, the London-based garden and landscape designer, who has created everything from English cottage gardens to a Japanese ecological park. Mr. Pearson, 43 years old, grew up in Hampshire, on the south coast of England. When he was 10, his family moved to a house with an overgrown garden, and Mr. Pearson spent his teenage years restoring it. The garden "had a strong sense of place," he says. "Very romantic and unkempt. It had a mind of its own."

He received his first garden commission when he was 17. Now known as both a designer and a gardening personality (he has often appeared on television and has a regular gardening column for the Daily Telegraph), Mr. Pearson's recent work includes the landscaping of the courtyard of the new British Library, marked by the use of edible and folkloric plants, and the creation of a visitor's walk at the Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire, where Princess Diana is buried (www.danpearsonstudio.com).

Hand-carved Rodin loveseat in oak by Jake Phipps: It's 'a resting point for your eye as well as your body,' says landscape designer Dan Pearson.

This year, Mr. Phipps, 31, introduced an acrylic version of the bench in white, lime green and hot pink, and Mr. Pearson heartily recommends it for a surprising reason: it's "super inorganic."

"Color in landscape can be very effective," he says, noting the "juxtaposition between something that is quite sharp and something that is terribly soft and changing. [The two] work well together because there is that tension."

• Rodin loveseat: £1,650 in oak, £995 in acrylic; www.jakephipps.com.

Eduardo Mencos

In the early 1990s, a young Madrid filmmaker named Eduardo Mencos was at an impasse. He wasn't happy with his last film, and he and his girlfriend had split up. "I used gardening as a medicine," says Mr. Mencos, 47, who went on to become one of Spain's best-known garden designers.

Mr. Mencos's film background is apparent in his approach to garden design. "I conceive of a garden as a show," he says. "That's why I incorporate sculpture, sun and shadow."

Maia woven-aluminum chair by Patricia Urquiola: 'It's inspired by traditional textile craft works,' says garden designer Eduardo Mencos.

Currently he is completing a vertical garden for the inner space of a hotel in the center of Madrid. And he has just finished work on the restoration of a small Spanish village destroyed by a fire. He says he tried to give rebirth to the place by "turning the whole village into a garden" (www.eduardomencos.com).

His choice: "My favorite new piece of design," he says, "is the Maia armchair," which was created by Mr. Mencos's compatriot, Patricia Urquiola. Now based in Milan, Ms. Urquiola, who is partly of Basque ancestry, is one of the stars of European design.

The Maia line, produced by the Spanish firm, Kettal, which also includes a chaise longue and dining set, has a woven aluminum frame with cushions in white, orange or dark gray.

"I think it's very attractive because it is inspired by traditional textile craft works, like crochet," says Mr. Mencos, who compares Ms. Urquiola's ability to "play with light and shadow" to his own approach.

• Maia chair with cushion, €1,195; www.kettal.es.

Eelco Hooftman

Edinburgh-based landscape architecture firm Gross. Max. -- named for the labeling on the side of shipping containers -- takes a pan-European approach to design, says founding partner Eelco Hooftman, 47, a transplanted Dutchman.

Dutchtub wood-fired hot tub by Floris Schoonderbeek: 'What I really like is that it makes you smile,' says landscape architect Eelco Hooftman.

In May, Gross. Max.'s latest project, the redesign of Potters Fields Park near London's Tower Bridge, opened with a three-day festival. The park includes wrought-iron screens in a botanical delftware pattern; the shapes repeat on the park's benches (www.grossmax.com).

His choice: Mr. Hooftman recommends the Dutchtub, a whimsical, functional, wood-fired hot tub by Dutch designer Floris Schoonderbeek. It was first produced in 2003 and a new, more portable version came out last year. The bulbous hard-plastic tub -- in pale blue, bright orange and several other colors -- can be easily moved around backyards or transported to campsites, and has a stainless-steel heating system to create hot water for a soak.

"What I really like is that it makes you smile," says Mr. Hooftman, "and you can actually take it with you." He says the tub brings a sense of intimacy. "You can put it on the top of a mountain or next to a lake, and create an instant garden," he says. "It's so fundamental: having a bath, making a fire."

• Dutchtub, €4,450; www.dutchtub.com.

Erik Dhont

Erik Dhont became interested in gardening through an interest in contemporary art. As an art student, "I saw there was

Miura tables (folded) by Konstantin Grcic: The set (with stools, not shown) 'has a communication aspect,' says garden designer Erik Dhont.

Mr. Dhont, who still lives and works in Brussels, has created a number of spectacular private gardens in Belgium, most famously at Gaasbeek, where he designed a contemporary maze of hedges and trees to accent a 17th-century manor house. Currently he is working on a sculpture garden for a wealthy client in Malibu, California, and a multilevel playground for an immigrant neighborhood in Brussels (www.erikdhont.com).

His choice: Mr. Dhont isn't averse to using works of industrial design in his spaces. He's especially fond of the work of Munich-based designer Konstantin Grcic, whose 1998 Boxer Lamp -- an elegant, die-cast aluminum lamp atop a pole -- Mr. Dhont used to subtle effect at a lakeside garden in the Belgian town of Keerbergen. Mr. Grcic "has a certain aspect of rationality that I like a lot," Mr. Dhont says. "Through this rationality there is a poetic element in his designs."

This year Mr. Dhont likes Mr. Grcic's new Miura table, and the unusually shaped Miura bar stool, which came out in 2005. Both are produced by the Italian firm Plank. "I like its structure," he says of the table, whose medallion-like surface is in contrast to the cut-diamond seat of the matching stool. And "with the table, the stool now has a communication aspect," he says. "The garden is a place for communication, to walk with your friends. It's a way of sharing nature."

•  Miura table, €340, stool, €145; www.plank.it, or www.konstantin-grcic.com.

Ulf Nordfjell

"It was amazing," says Stockholm-based landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell about his winning a gold medal last month at the Chelsea Flower Show. More than 150,000 visited during its five-day run, and Mr. Nordfjell, who created a design in honor of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, was the toast of the town.

Mr. Nordfjell says he tried to combine two Swedish design traditions: the neoclassical, or "Gustavian" style of the 18th century, with 20th-century Swedish modernism. The design brings together what he calls "the traditional Swedish materials" of timber and granite, which, combined with pools of water, set off elegant plantings. He attributes his success to the garden's "extreme simplicity."

Air bench and table by Thomas Sandell: 'A good representation of Swedish design today,' says landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell.

His choice: Known for applying an architectural approach to garden design, Mr. Nordfjell recommends the Air bench and table designed by Swedish architect Thomas Sandell for the Stockholm label and home furnishings store Asplund.

The low-hanging bench -- suggesting a witty take on the perforated panels used by engineers -- was first produced in the early 1990s. Now Mr. Sandell has designed an outdoor version of the bench, with a matching table that nests two benches underneath it. It is made from galvanized steel and treated with special outdoor paint in white, dark gray or coral.

"Thomas Sandell's design is very simple, but it has a very high quality," Mr. Nordfjell says, adding the bench and table would be "beautiful just to have as decoration in the garden," and that it is also "a good representation of Swedish design today."

• Air table, 5,100 Swedish kronor (€546); bench, 3,450 kronor (€369); www.asplund.org.

Peter Latz

When Peter Latz was a teenager in Germany's Saarland region, he had the idea to alter his family's vegetable garden. In the end, he executed the addition of 100 apple trees, and in the process, he says, "I knew I wanted to be a landscape architect."

The Katharina von Bora, a pink climbing rose: The rose 'is a very romantic plant,' says landscape designer Peter Latz.

His choice: Though he works on large-scale projects around the world, Mr. Latz is a gardener at heart. He is particularly fond of his rose garden. "It's a very romantic plant, which is why I like it more and more as I get older," he says.

In a broad take on the question of what "new design" would you add to a garden, he suggests two rose breeds recently created at the Schultheis rose nursery near Frankfurt: the full-flowered, Katharina von Bora climbing rose; and the Tibet Rose, which is a stem rose. The Katharina von Bora, with deep pink blossoms and dark green leaves, is named for Martin Luther's wife. The yellow Tibet Rose was created in honor of the Dalai Lama, and a portion of its sales are donated to Tibet charities.

Mr. Latz calls Schultheis one of the world's best rose growers, and also among the most traditional -- co-owner Christian Schultheis, 30, is the fifth generation of his family to work at the nursery. Mr. Latz is also a fan of the company's historical roses, many of which are only available from Schultheis.

• Katharina von Bora, €9.65 per plant; Tibet Rose, €12.25 per plant; www.rosenhof-schultheis.de.

Christopher Bradley-Hole

"Something in our souls is connected with the garden," says Christopher Bradley-Hole, who came to prominence when he won the top prize at the 1997 Chelsea Garden Show with a starkly modern design called "the Latin Garden." The minimalist, geometric garden was a shift for the show, until then "the province of quite sentimental cottage-style garden design, [but I was] keen to do something modern," he says.

Green Hornton limestone carved by artist Belinda Eade (reading 'Always something new' in Latin): It 'works beautifully in a small garden as a single, found object,' says garden designer Christopher Bradley-Hole.

He designs everything from "small-town gardens" to "very large country gardens" that might take up hectares (www.christopherbradley-hole.co.uk).

His choice: For Mr. Bradley-Hole the best addition to a new garden would be a lettered stone from London-based artist Belinda Eade. The artist engraves bits of poetry, quotations or words chosen by the client onto stone to create a piece that looks like a relic -- a long tradition in English landscape design. A finished stone might take six months to make.

Mr. Bradley-Hole likes the way Ms. Eade's stones "catch the light and resonate in terms of narrative." He says the stones can "work beautifully in a small garden, as a single, found object," or you could choose a series of stones and "come across them at various points."

Mr. Bradley-Hole points out that the traditional English landscape garden, like the Italian Renaissance garden, usually told a story, which was "mostly expressed in sculpture." Ms. Eade's stones fulfill a similar function. "A garden with an underlying narrative is very, very interesting," he says.

• Lettered stones, ranging from £1,000-£10,000; www.belindaeade.com.

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