Zdeněk Sendler (*1956) is one of the most distinctive Czech landscape garden designers of the last decades. Gardens have been a familiar topic for him since his childhood, as his father was a gardener at the children's hospital in Brno. Zdeněk Sendler followed in his father's footsteps, starting as a gardening apprentice in Rajhrad and later graduating from the College of Horticulture in Brno. In 1982, he studied landscape gardening at the University of Agriculture in Lednice na Moravě. After his studies he was employed in the project department of the State Farm Mikulov but two years later he switched to the Brno branch of the Horticulture Research Institute in Průhonice.
In 1990, Zdeněk Sendler set up his own studio “Ateliér zahradní a krajinářské architektury” which is still operational today. His closest long-term associate in the studio is Václav Babka. The studio undertakes a wide range of projects from small residential gardens, children's playgrounds, urban parks and historical chateau gardens to landscaping schemes. The studio often cooperates with architects, artists and other designers. Notable projects carried out by the studio include: Denis Gardens in Brno (2005), Komenského Park in Zlín (2015) and Jirásek Gardens in Litoměřice (2015).
We can find evidence of Sendler's studio's work in Litomyšl – the Cloister Gardens, central bus station, etc. – but the studio's work is most evident in Dolní Březany near Prague. At first there was a non-traditional Celtic park which links up to the newly built village centre and is intended to be a reminder of the earliest stage in settling the area (2010). Later, a landscaped park and cemetery was added to it (2016), likewise inspired by Celtic culture. It consists of avenues of linden trees in the shape of a cross with four oak trees in its centre. At the intersection of the avenues there is a cemetery – two concentric circlular stone walls.
The key to success for Zdeněk Sendler's studio is a good knowledge of historical parks and gardens which it implements in renovating earlier established gardens. As regards new parks, the studio relies on strong, often symbolical concepts, and distinctively laid out spaces, complemented with small architectural features.
2005
Revitalized Denis Gardens, Brno (in cooperation with the studio Hrůša & Pelčák)
2007
Landscaping of gardens at central bus station, Litomyšl (in cooperation with the studio RAW)
2010
Revitalized Studánka Park, Brno (in cooperation with the studio Architekti Hrůša & spol.)
Renovation of Chateau Gardens, Jičín (in cooperation with the studio Ateliér Radko Květ)
2014
Celtic park, Dolní Břežany
2015
Renovation of Jirásek Gardens, Litoměřice
Revitalized Komenského Park, Zlín (in cooperation with the architect Pavel Mudřík)
2016
Park with cemetery, Dolní Břežany
Antonín Novák (ed.), Česká architektura 2015–2016 / Czech architecture. Yearbook 2015–2016, Praha 2017, s. 20–23, 62–65.
Cesty za architekturou – Bedekr, Dolní Břežany, Architect+ II, 2017, duben, s. 89–114.
Jitka Ressová (ed.), Česká architektura 2014–2015 / Czech architecture. Yearbook 2014–2015, Praha 2016, s. 70–73.