Influential Designers: Fernando Caruncho

Born in Spain in 1957, Fernando Caruncho is well known for his minimalist style that relates to the natural and the built enviornment. Caruncho has produced some of the most serene and evocative landscapes to emerge from Spain. His gardens have a classic sense of formality that express the influence of Islam. However, they are clearly of the twenty first century, with clean uncluttered spaces filled with light and reflective surfaces.

Caruncho’s gardens are as deliberate and particular as his words. ‘I need absolute calm when I look at a garden. When the idea comes, I sketch quickly, but before that comes days of observation and gently mulling things over in my head. Understanding a garden or a landscape is like getting to know a person. It is slow, you need time to draw out the personality.’