March 2025 | Vol 14
JOHN SHARP
TURNING GARDENS INTO LIVING THEATERS
words Onur Baştürk
photos Sean Hazen
He has an academic background in mixed media and sculpture. He also had an early career in event production, curating, styling and collecting. And for some time now, he has been a pioneer in the landscape industry. With a contemporary eye and innovative approach, John Sharp tells botanical stories and reinvents the exteriors of historic homes designed by iconic architects like John Lautner and Richard Neutra. In 2018, Sharp established his own studio in Los Angeles, California, and is a charismatic creator driven by a deep love of the natural world, regenerative systems, and life.
What kind of roadmap do you follow when you start a landscape project?
When working with nature, natural materials, and people, it is especially useful to take a very process-oriented approach, rather than trying to control the end result or arrive at an exact predetermined destination.
I think a lot of design work can feel overworked, overcooked, too manicured and controlled. A lot of what we do is about reawakening a wild dimension and timelessness of a place, so when we chart our course. We know from the beginning that we want to leave room for ideas and energies to evolve and emerge that might take us somewhere new.
As we gather information to set our sight lines, we take in the existing conditions, learn about the unique ecologies of the place, including environmental, social, and architectural. We establish the parameters of the project, identifying resources and needs, intentions and desires. From there, we develop material and plant palettes. We draw inspiration from everywhere-our clients, the site's uniqueness, our artistic community, design heroes, tradition, and the cultural zeitgeist.
How do you draw inspiration from architecture when designing landscapes? For example, how have houses designed by legends like John Lautner and Richard Neutra influenced your landscape work?
When working on projects with distinctive and/or historic architecture, we often draw from the architectural language of the site, allowing it to inform and inspire the outdoor environment. Legends like John Lautner and Richard Neutra, with their bold modernist visions, have greatly influenced my work. Their provocative designs - whether futuristic, risky, or deeply integrated with nature - encourage a timeless approach that pushes boundaries while maintaining integrity.
I view a property as a whole, where architecture, people and land are in constant dialogue. Structures like Lautner's fluid spaces or Neutra's seamless indoor-outdoor transitions reveal incredible spatial opportunities that can be extended into the landscape. This philosophy of connectivity, where land and architecture speak to each other, is a guiding principle. Each project becomes a narrative where the relationship between human habitation and nature is central, optimally leading us to design that is forward-thinking yet grounded in a timeless ethos.
Do you design gardens to client specifications or do you have a specific garden style as Studio John Sharp? If so, how would you describe that style?
More of the latter, but with careful listening to our clients' ideas and preferences - we love to challenge our own and our clients' ideas of likes and dislikes, and leave plenty of room for new stories and "je ne sais quoi" factors.
Exterior programming - such as outdoor wellness, play and gathering spaces - is naturally heavily influenced by dialogue with our clients. Bringing a distinctive style to each of these spaces and ensuring a cohesive whole is part of the specific value we deliver as a design studio.
Our creative identity is constantly evolving, but our work is characterized by a spirit of playfulness, a reverence for natural life, an embrace of slow, traditional materials and methods, and an unapologetically expressive, painterly and borderline punk style. In our own humble agency of change as a design studio, we work to cultivate natural environments that are vital and alive, inviting and moving. When we have done our job well, the gardens may take on the attributes of a living theater, enveloping the characters in an unusual, transportive, dreamy, symphonic, retro-future, and whimsical outdoor setting for many pages to unfold.
What are the 5 must-have plants for a garden design?
This summer it’s been Dracena Dracos, Native Salvia and Sages, Globe shaped Pittosporum, various colored Agaves and layers of Muhly grasses.
What is the secret to a healthy garden?
Consideration, love, and vested interest. Our process aims to bring our clients into an active practice of care, attunement and knowledge of their garden. We serve as a bridge of reconnection with nature.
I appreciate that you are creating drought-tolerant gardens, because I think gardens that require a lot of watering are going to disappear in the near future. What do you think?
Yes, we are not fundamentalists, but we love native gardens for this very reason - once established, they require minimal watering. Native gardens also attract local wildlife and habitat. We love to support ecosystems with pollinator gardens, which can often operate with minimal watering. Packets of wildflower seeds can be watered by rain.
Which of the gardens you have designed for famous actors have impressed you the most?
Sophia Bush was one of my first big clients. I was so inspired by her desire for "do-it-yourself" gardening during the pandemic. Between the organic garden and the chicken coop, we were able to work together to create a complete homesteading dream that was a special retreat for so many and even had its own custom egg cartons.
What are the garden styles you most admire from different climates and continents outside the U.S.?
We love Mediterranean gardens, especially Balearic ones, but have now begun to reimagine the English garden.
If you were a garden, how would you like to be treated by the gardener?
I want the gardener to ask me what I have to say and to listen to what I have to say. If I were producing fruits and vegetables, I would want to be regularly harvested and enjoyed. I would want to experience a reciprocal connection with the people and place where I live. I would like to be observed and known, and to have optimal conditions for growth and expression.
