Month: January 2019

Welcome to blog number three of our “Right Design, right place” blog series. A blog which aims to explore some key aspects of design in the context of landscape.

Today is “Right light, right place”.

Driving back to the office from a meeting last week, the late afternoon sun seemed to light the world sideways. Roadside trees were illuminated from behind, casting the kind of long shadows you only get in winter. The gold of the fields was flanked with dark brooding skies and this got me to thinking about the role of light in design.

There are no shortage of architectural sources citing the importance of light within your home. Indeed, there are now an increasing number of virtual reality studies to assess the impact of light on the human experience of architecture and moreover the role of light within health…but what of landscape?

If you visit a client’s project, one of the first things they tell you about their outdoor space is where the last rays of sun fall in the evening. There is something very telling in that and our human experience of natural light.

The aspect of a garden informs a design in lots of ways. On a purely practical level it advises on planting and entertaining spaces. It helps distinguish breakfast from evening terraces and shade loving ferns from sun loving alliums.

More than this though light creates character. Emotively, we are rarely moved more by a cloudless blue sky than by gold tinged shadows and sunsets. It is, quite literally the light and shade which creates the sense of place.

Light both natural and artificial can also be used to define spaces. It separates the hard from the soft and the communal from the private. Designing a garden to change dynamically throughout the day and as night falls is part of a well thought out design. It contributes not only to mood and character but also usability on a functional and motivational level.

There is increasing literature to support the role of light (natural light) and of course green space more generally in maintaining our psychological and physical health so our role as landscape architects to harness light is becoming ever more important. For plants, the role of light is one of survival, for us, it would seem, it is much more than that.

See our earlier blogs Right plant, Right place and Right Line Right Place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit:

Street light Matthew Skinner 

Tunnel Max

Shadow Sunset Noir

Welcome to blog number two of our “Right Design, right place” blog series. A blog which aims to explore some key aspects of design in the context of landscape.

Today is “Right line, right place”. Whether you are talking literature, maps, graphs, roads or Pythagoras’ theorem there’s no mistaking the importance of the humble line. The line is one of the simplest of all forms and yet forms the basis for almost everything we see.

In a design sense lines cannot be overvalued. Consideration of how to use lines within a landscape design is often the difference between the success and failure of a space from both aesthetic and functional perspectives. With projects, very often being architecturally driven, landscape is regularly used as tool in connecting building to setting but in this way usually has to work hard to balance the requests of client, architecture, planner and place. Reflecting or contrasting the lines found throughout both building and wider site can be an important part of achieving this.

Lines can be used to organise, separate, guide the eye, create movement, add texture and mirror. Any combination of these therefore may be helpful in creating a whole design which meets the competing needs of the many individuals invested in it.

Lines can also be used to disguise or reflect functional elements of a design. Well thought out plans will design in or design out practicalities rather than compromising on them. In this way, they can be either used as a feature or cleverly concealed within the overall masterplan.

Taking this one step further, the concept  for one paragraph 79 (previously paragraph 55) project we are working on was for the building to have an exceptional ability to blend with the surrounding woodland. Vertical lines here were important throughout both the landscape and architecture in allowing the building to become a part of its setting. The resulting home here, will look both subtle and striking.

The way lines are used within designs is often a driver for the character and emotion of a site, it informs the way a space is used and creates connectivity. So next time you wander through a space, consider the many lines both natural and designed and their connection with both each other and with your experience of that place. You might just be surprised by the way your perspective is transformed.

 

See our earlier blog Right plant, Right place here.

 

Photo creditPhoto by James Forbes