Adrian Fisher is the Master of the Maze, the man who can put a lasting mark on your landscape for centuries to come. What’s more, he has just the thing to help you see it from on high once it’s finished
If one was ever in doubt about the desirability of commissioning a maze that will give pleasure long after you’ve gone, Adrian Fisher has a simple answer that might just make up your mind. “Just ask the Queen!” he says, with a wry smile. “What could be lovelier than creating a bit of heritage that could last hundreds of years like her maze at Hampton Court? It is probably the most creative thing you will ever do. Your land is your canvas.”
As the undisputed master of mazes, Dorset-based Adrian Fisher has designed more than 600 mazes in more than 30 countries, setting six world records and winning two gold medals for garden design in the process. He has designed everything from hedge mazes with follies for private individuals (he has just finished one for a client who wanted a maze for his family to enjoy at his French chateau), to light mazes in the Czech Republic and mirror mazes in theme parks from Mexico and Spain to the Netherlands, with plans afoot to bring more labyrinthine joy to the world in South Korea, Germany, Tokyo and Mumbai in India and an outdoor Christmas maze in Hong Kong. Visitors to Dubai can even see an Adrian Fisher maze snaking its way up the side of an apartment block close to the Stock Exchange.
“There are no limits when it comes to modern mazes,” says Adrian, speaking animatedly about his designs, including a maze based on an alien invasion, as well as a Egyptian-themed water maze involving all manner of Indiana Jones-style adventure and derring-do, from a sacred lake of crocodiles to marauding banshees. “New mazes are coming up in America that are going to blow people away,” he adds.
Mazes rely on three simple happiness principles: making choices; doing things together; and exploring the unknown
To say that Adrian lives and breathes mazes is an understatement. In fact, since 1991 he has built half of all the mirror mazes in the world, and as you would expect is evangelical about their uplifting powers. “Mazes create happiness, and today they are more wonderful and joyful than ever before.” The ‘Maze Maker’, as he is known, recently flew out to New Jersey to give a talk on this very topic as part of a TedX Talk on The Pursuit of Happiness. “Mazes rely on three simple happiness principles: making choices; doing things together; and exploring the unknown. That’s the universal rule.”
As a way of putting your mark on the landscape and creating a living structure that will go on giving pleasure for generations to come – and, for added wow factor, can also be viewed on Google Earth – nothing comes close to an Adrian Fisher maze. “People love mazes because they tell a story,” says Adrian, who built his first maze in his father’s garden as a boy and got his first commission at Greys Court in Oxfordshire, in his twenties, courtesy of Lady Brunner.
“Mazes are the quintessentially English thing – you’ve only got to look at the National Trust with its four million members to know that as a nation we are bonkers about gardening and outdoor landscapes. Our climate lends itself to it and as a pastime it is so rewarding.” People might be concerned about the upkeep of a maze but Adrian Fisher designs use slow-growing material such as hornbeam, yew, beech and holly, and the maze in Adrian’s own garden only needs cutting once a year.
To get a unique perspective on said maze, Adrian recently invested in a Phantom drone, a voice-controlled device that takes stills and videos from a great height, which can then, rather niftily, be downloaded via an iPhone. The Phantom has simply and effectively revolutionised the way Adrian and his team see his creations, and means clients can get a bird’s-eye view without having to send up a plane.
Adrian can’t help drawing parallels with Daedalus, who according to Greek myth, designed the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete, and sent up his son, Icarus, on feathered wings, with disastrous consequences. “The great Maze Maker doesn’t rely on wax and feathers,” he says, with a chuckle. “He has a Phantom with 25 minutes’ flying time.” Who could possibly argue with that?
Click here for more information about Adrian Fisher Design
The post The Master of the Maze appeared first on Beyond Bespoke.