Garden Futures: Designing with Nature at V&A Dundee, in Scotland, offers an immersive journey through the past, present, and future of garden design, celebrating the role of gardens in our lives—whether as spaces of beauty, productivity, reflection, or resistance. Presented exclusively in the UK by V&A Dundee, this major exhibition explores how gardens—large or small, urban or rural—connect us to nature and to one another.

With over 400 objects on display, the exhibition combines historical artefacts with cutting-edge design, technology, and contemporary culture. Visitors are invited to reflect on gardens not only as aesthetic or leisure spaces, but as places of social change, healing, and innovation. From the paradise gardens of ancient Persia to vertical forests in modern Milan, the exhibition covers an extraordinary range of global gardening traditions and future-facing experiments.

One of the exhibition’s highlights is the sensory experience it offers—textures, light, sound, and even a fragrance trail of rose, jasmine and narcissus invite visitors to feel immersed in a garden within the gallery itself. Spaces are designed to evoke nature in all its variety, from hedge mazes to greenhouses, showcasing just how diverse gardens can be.

The show also features iconic contributions from designers such as Piet Oudolf, known for his naturalistic planting style, and Arabella Lennox-Boyd, whose work on the gardens at Maggie’s Centre in Dundee exemplifies the role of gardens in healing environments. The exhibition goes beyond plants, presenting nature-inspired fashion, such as Dior menswear referencing Charleston Garden in Sussex, and sustainable materials like wheatgrass-root textiles used in garments by Phoebe English.

Technology also plays a key role. Visitors can interact with “Garden,” a musical videogame by Dundee-based Biome Collective, and discover digital tools like the Pollinator Pathway app, which helps users design pollinator-friendly gardens. Sustainability is central throughout, with features like self-watering plant pots made from marine waste by Glasgow’s POTR studio.

V&A Dundee has added a distinctive Scottish dimension to the exhibition, with stories from Maxwell Community Garden, Little Sparta by Ian Hamilton Finlay, and the Eden Project Scotland initiative. These additions underline the relevance of garden design at a local as well as global level.

Curators Francesca Bibby and James Wylie have created an inclusive, thought-provoking experience that welcomes seasoned gardeners and curious newcomers alike. The exhibition encourages reflection on how gardens can be a form of creative expression, a response to climate and social challenges, and a pathway to wellbeing.

As Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney noted: ‘gardens, no matter their size, can offer sanctuary, joy, and a connection to the natural world‘. In an age increasingly marked by environmental and social pressures, Garden Futures: Designing with Nature positions the garden as a powerful symbol of resilience, imagination, and renewal.