You need the Flash plug-in to view this website. It can
be downloaded very quickly, while remaining at this site.
If you do not want to download Flash then scroll down to get some details on Andrew Pfeiffer. |
History of Andrew Pfeiffer |
Andrew Pfeiffer was born in Sydney and spent his childhood on a farm in the Bega Valley three hundred miles south of Sydney. A one thousand foot high knoll, and a small river that traversed the farm, inspired an interest in gardens based on the inherent character of the site, and on a sense of place. On the knoll grew immense native fig trees, brachychitons, large trees of sweetly scented Pittosporum undulatum, and a wealth of ferns and orchids amongst the smooth, lichen-covered granite rocks. A natural spring fed a deep pool fringed with watercress. At Cranbrook School in Sydney, his art master, Justin O'Brien, instilled an interest in painters of the Italian Renaissance such as Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Cimabue and Carpaccio. He later became a collector of works of contemporary European painters such as Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Palladino and Miguel Barcelo. He believes that this broad interest in painting has disciplined his eye, an essential attribute for a landscape designer. After an unsuccessful stint studying law, he worked as a labourer at London's Clifton Nurseries and in Manhattan at The City Gardener. He was a student of horticulture and landscape design at the Kalmthout Arboretum in Belgium, and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. He then gained experience working as a student gardener at both Bowhill and Boughton House, estates of the Duke of Buccleuch in Scotland and England. Andrew Pfeiffer's first gardens were made in England, Austria and Germany. A visit back to Australia brought a number of commissions. Over the past twenty years he has worked around the world and, based in Sydney and London, also works in continental Europe, the United States, Asia and South America. Whilst his clients have included some of the world's most influential people he also designs gardens for small suburban backyards. As a guiding philosophy Andrew Pfeiffer believes that gardens should be based on their natural surroundings and the local indigenous flora. Along with the great twentieth century garden designers, Russell Page and Roberto Burle Marx, both of whom he knew personally, he believes that unless gardens are based on a choice of plants that are mutually and ecologically compatible, their effect can only be unsatisfactory. He believes that gardens should be thought of with a long view, and not in terms of superficial and fleeting fashion. "Gardens are based on plants, and plants are living things with complex needs and even more complex associations", he says. "All great gardens have a timeless quality based on an original vision that can only be realised with great discipline." |
Click on the logo above to e-mail Andrew Pfeiffer. |
mobile number: |
WAIT A MOMENT PLEASE...............
IF THIS PAGE HAS NOT CHANGED AFTER A FEW SECONDS SCROLL DOWN