Sophie Walker
Sophie Walker is an award-winning author and garden designer. Her book The Japanese Garden (Phaidon, 2017) is considered the seminal work on the subject and has sold some 50,000 copies worldwide. Sophie is currently working on her second book on the subject.
In 2014, Sophie became the youngest woman to design a garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show with Cave Pavilion, sponsored by the Garden Museum, London.
Based in UK, Sophie has designed gardens internationally with some of the biggest names in art and architecture, including David Chipperfield and Zaha Hadid. She worked on her expansive design for the De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands, in collaboration with her then husband, artist Anish Kapoor; it opened in September 2017 in celebration of the museum’s 25 year anniversary. In Haywards Heath, UK, Sophie redesigned an area of Borde Hill Gardens, opened to the public in 2018. Also in 2018, Sophie designed a public garden commissioned for Ulsan Park, Korea. In London, Sophie’s projects include an NHS therapy garden for patients of Grove Park Practice in Chiswick, and worked in collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects and Anish Kapoor as one of ten shortlisted teams for a UK government commission for a new national Holocaust Memorial on the River Thames besides the Houses of Parliament. Private UK-based projects include residential gardens in and around London including a rooftop site in central London and a large scale design on the Sussex coast. Sophie’s enthusiasm for travel has led her to projects as far afield as Japan, India and Sri Lanka and Bahamas. In India, Sophie is currently working on two inner city projects both of which hold sustainability at their heart.
Sophie enjoys working with rare and unusual plants. For her garden Cave Pavilion, at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Sophie worked with modern-day plant hunters Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones to produce a 'fully-traceable' garden of previously unexhibited plants that had been grown entirely from seed collected in the wild. Her interest in plants and conservation has extended to her private projects and she has recently completed an eight year project working in the Bahamas in collaboration with the Bahamian National Trust to restore a private garden with native habitat.
Sophie's acclaimed book, The Japanese Garden, was published by Phaidon in 2017. In her writing, Sophie “offers fresh insight” on the conceptual and philosophical ambition of the Japanese garden and its abstract nature. This comprehensive publication explores the many aspects of Japanese garden design and features 92 of Japan's finest gardens, ranging from historic shrine gardens to contemporary urban designs.
For her garden design work, Sophie won the People's Choice Award at RHS Hampton Court Palace for A Valley Garden, a RHS Silver-Gilt Medal Show Garden and an RHS Chelsea Flower Show Silver Medal for Cave Pavilion.
After studying art history, Sophie returned to education to study horticulture, plant science and later, psychoanalysis and garden design.
Sophie writes on the Japanese garden for a wide range of publications. Notable lectures include at The Royal Geographical Society, London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; De Pont Museum, Tilburg.
Sophie continues to be deeply involved in the arts. With a background in art history, she was trustee of the Anish Kapoor Foundation and an integral part of its formation and development. She has a keen personal interest in early art of the Indian subcontinent and holds a rigorous and extensive collection of early Indian prints (1870-1949). She sits on the editorial board of The Zen Gateway, an online resource that supports the practice and understanding of Zen Buddhism.
She is currently working on her second book, also on the Japanese garden and Japanese culture.