Meet Landscape Designer Dan Pearson OBE

Dan Pearson OBE trained at the RHS Gardens’ Wisley and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Starting his professional career as a garden and landscape designer in 1987, he was one of the earliest contemporary practitioners of naturalistic perennial planting in the UK. He has designed five award-winning Chelsea Flower Show gardens.

Dan is leading the design of the landscape at the Goodwood Art Foundation, working with our team to realise the Foundation’s vision of a stunning, sustainable and welcoming site for all, which is both in harmony with the local environment and a suitable home for contemporary art.

We caught up with Dan on a recent visit to hear more about his plans:

Can you tell us about your approach to working on the project?

When you look at a site, I think it's always important to try and key into the strongest things that you're feeling when you arrive here for the first time. And that ultimately becomes the big inspiration for how I’ve approached my work. Here, it's the forest, it's the woods, it's the connection to the old Estate which goes way back and has a strong sense of place because you’re not so far from the sea and very much aware of those conditions. We also have the curatorial team and the artists, who have been hugely inspiring to work with. Just to see the world through their eyes and to help facilitate placing the work within this incredible environment, and make it all work together, has been very inspiring.

Can you tell us about how the new Foundation fits into the Goodwood Estate?

I think the Foundation will be a special place at Goodwood, with its own unique identity. It will have a very peaceful quality to it, and it's been key when we've worked with the curators that it isn't overloaded, that it feels like a place where you've got time to think about each of the exhibits and that they’re a surprise when you find them. So, it's somewhere that will be very calm, that will make you feel well, like a retreat from a busy life and busy environment, a sanctuary in nature. It'll be somewhere that you can go to many times and always see something differently. It will sit alongside everything else that Goodwood has to offer, but it will be very much its own place.

Can you tell us more about your idea of ‘24 Seasons’ and how that will come to life at the Foundation?

We thought it would be interesting to introduce this idea of there being 24 seasons which could unlock a calendar of moments throughout the year. So, imagine, for instance, a bluebell wood coming to life in the spring. We would see that as being one moment. Or there's a cherry grove that blossoms and lights up within the darkness of the woodland. And then of course they have another spectacular moment when they become a different colour in autumn. So, we've moved around the site and found things that feel appropriate to each place, that allows each to have a moment of natural resonance. Visitors will be able to say, “let's go and look at the snowdrops, which are blooming down in that part of the garden. Or let's go and look at the white beans, the Swedish white blooms, which have just come into leaf and are silver amongst the dark pines.” And I think by doing that, you then start to give this sense of a journey throughout the year, so that people can come back multiple times, and it will always be slightly different.

Do you have a favourite moment yourself?

One of the things we're introducing here is a katsura grove. The trees have this beautiful coppery colour when they come into leaf in the spring. And then in the autumn, when the leaves drop and turn amber yellow, they have this amazing smell of burning sugar. So, it becomes a sensory experience, something that grounds you in the place in a very natural way, that makes you feel like you can unlock the sense of place here and what makes it special.

Can you tell us more about your approach to the native plant species here?

One of the things we're doing is keying into the ancient woodland here. So, there will be species that we're using already native to the area. And then there are various bulbs and perennials which we’ll be augmenting. There are some very beautiful hellebores which occur here, for instance, which flower in the winter and early spring. And they'll be feathering their way out, with more bluebells carpeting the floor, and things like snow drops and other species, which have occurred here for a long time and can help with enriching the biodiversity, which we hope will be encouraged by the new planting.

How are you encouraging biodiversity on the site?

The best things that happen with biodiversity are always at the edges. So, the edge of the woodland where it meets open ground and you get semi-shade and then meadow, that's where the interesting things happen. So, we've created these glades to give all those edge conditions a boost. It's key to us that we create opportunities for wildlife to come into the site. So, for instance, with the clearings, we are keeping dead wood piles, which can then slowly rot back into the ground and be good for fungus, lichens and all the creatures which thrive in those environments. Similarly, we're making long log-stack walls which sit throughout the woodland to repurpose the wood that we've taken down, which will make very beautiful graphic lines and act as way-finders for visitors. Ultimately, we're trying to be as circular as we possibly can. Anything that's removed and chipped is put down onto the paths, which is fantastic for the all the mycelium in the ground. So, we're really thinking about it on all sorts of levels in terms of trying to get biodiversity right up on the site and make it somewhere as rich as possible on that front.

Can you describe the journey visitors will go on when they first arrive?

As you leave the car park behind you, you pass through trees and follow quite close to the old flint Napoleonic wall, which is towering above you to one side. And then you swing round to see the gallery on your right in among the grove of white magnolias. There's a long bench we're making at the base of the wall, which allows you to pause, collect your thoughts, and prepare for your walk. We've opened this long view through the trees by taking away some of the conifers, to allow some views over the meadows, which have been taken on as part of the site, and through to the sparkling sea in the distance. And that creates this long vista, which takes you through and draws you down to the gallery's edge through low-ground cover planting that uses native plants like gallium, hedge bedstraw, more hellebores, with ivy and other simple plants to support the trees which rise up above you, to give that sense of a journey, and that you've moved from somewhere functional into this magical woodland with stunning views beyond.

Could you tell us about the new amphitheatre space?

When we arrived, there had been part of the site which had already been cleared for forestry. So, if you imagine you're walking through quite a dense woodland, suddenly there's this big cut and empty space, and on one side of it there's the old flint wall. On the other side there's ancient woodland. As you approach this new space, we thought you're coming through something that feels quite dense, dark and magical into somewhere that's going to be filled with light and have a very different mood. We wanted to play on that idea of coming out of the dark coniferous woods and into this new space which can be used for events and entertaining.

What’s been your approach to making the site accessible?

We want to make the Foundation a place that's accessible for everyone. There's quite a wide spectrum of things that we wanted to capture in terms of the experiences, and I think that what we're trying to do is to make a series of environments which people can move through very easily. All the paths are easily negotiable. And there will always be pausing places where people can stop and rest. We’ve designed it with simple circuits in mind, which can allow you to take quite a small journey, which might be just to see the main gallery, the cafeteria and the surrounding areas, then there are longer journeys which might take three hours, so you can spend a much longer time taking everything in.

The Goodwood Art Foundation will open to the public in May 2025. To be the first to hear our exciting plans, as well as ticketing information and all the latest updates, please sign up to our newsletter