Month: February 2019

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

Today is “Right colour, right place”.

When it comes to interiors, colour is a science. Interior designers spend their whole careers perfecting colour schemes and there are whole branches of science dedicated to the art of colour. We’ve even attended a couple of talks by artist and designer Anna Jacobs which demonstrated most surprisingly the real visual impact of colour from an interiors perspective.

When it comes to landscapes however, the science is less well equipped and the rules much vaguer. This is perhaps because there are no rules in nature. In the wild, flora doesn’t discriminate where it germinates on the basis of colour palette, it uses other more essential factors such as soil, light and competition.

This is not to say that some colours aren’t more commonly seen together than others and indeed certain colour palettes do, broadly speaking, often require similar growing conditions. It’s much more likely for example to see muted or pastel colours on shaded sites than bright and bold ones and often this is linked to that plant’s preference for shaded or sun flooded spaces in the landscape. There is also evidence to suggest pollinators have preferences for certain flower colours so it follows that germination and colonisation in particular areas could be colour consistent. However, if a flower has the right conditions to grow, it will grow no matter the colour of its neighbours.

From a design perspective, designers will often have their own opinions and preferences when it comes to colour but there are some ideas worth considering which cross design styles.

Don’t buy what you like

There is a temptation to wander the row upon row of garden nursery and purchase plants and trees which you like. The danger here is that you could end up with a very incongruous scheme. Rather than buy specific plants and trees you like, better to consider tone and style. Think of tone like mood. What do you want from your garden? Country cottage? Contemporary minimalist? A meditative space? A place for fun and entertaining? Decide on the general tone of your garden and let a horticulturist or designer help you achieve it with the right planting palette for you and your site.

Don’t overdo it

Good design in a landscape sense is as much about limiting colour as about injecting it. Many of the errors in planting schemes come from too many colours rather than too few. Often (but not always!) less is more.

Think about your canvas

Many people make the mistake of considering planting as the only colour in their garden however, hard landscaping also plays a big part in how an overall scheme ties together. Choosing the right colours and textures in your terraces, walls and structures can really affect how the overall landscape looks. Just as with pictures on walls, some plants and colour combinations will sing with certain tones or textures behind them. Just painting a fence or changing your boundaries altogether can make an extraordinary difference to how a garden looks.

Remember that colour changes

Colour will change throughout the day with the changing light conditions and throughout the seasons too. A good designer will help design a garden which isn’t only seasonal with a mixture of evergreen and deciduous/herbaceous planting. They will also consider things like lighting to really make the most of the garden through day and into night.

Be open minded

Having a fixed idea in terms of colour scheme may limit the success of your garden. If the conditions are such that only certain plants will flourish there, insisting on certain plants or planting palettes may result in a garden that isn’t able to thrive. In the same sense, the character or setting of a site may lend itself to a particular style. If you love country cottage but you have a very contemporary and compact (or shaded) garden, it may be that another style may actually look better but be able achieve a similar feel to the one you are going for. Be open-minded to explore different styles of planting and their overall effect and the chances are you’ll end up with the much better scheme in the end.

 

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

 

 

 

 

Photo credit:

Annie Spratt

Welcome to blog number four 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 time, right place”.

This year is 100 years since start of the Bauhaus school back in 1919 and looking back over their legacy has got us to thinking about the impact of time on design.

When people are beginning to self-build a home or garden, often their starting point for design inspiration is to the world of design magazines, blogs and social media. These platforms can (and do) add significant value to the industry in supporting people to establish their preferences from their aversions and their essentials from their wish lists. Many of the better ones also serve as useful guidance for navigating the often complex, world of design.

However, in accessing information via the media alone, there is also danger. Many magazines and blogs often highlight, follow and some even set, the ever-changing design trends for the days, months and years ahead. Just as with clothing, art and music though, these trends often become outdated as quickly as they become fashionable.

The job of a designer, be it interior, architectural or landscape, is to filter the trend from the timeless…Is to be able to identify and design a space to maximise its potential from a spatial, functional and aesthetic perspective. Ultimately designing for trends rather than the character of the site itself is likely to shorten the lifespan of a design. And a shortened lifespan will have a knock-on effect on the often significant financial and time investment it takes to create a space.

When it comes to landscape, there are further pitfalls in designing for time. Landscapes, by their very nature are subject to weathering, softening and the growth of the natural world. Material choice in outdoor spaces can be even more significant to the long-term success of a project than internal spaces. A material like natural stone will weather, wear and soften over time, whilst a clean contemporary material like porcelain is unlikely to show significant change over a similar timespan. Consider now, a landscape with both these materials and how a unified scheme at its inception, may become incongruous over time. Landscape architects need to design not just for now but for the future.

This idea of ‘design for the future’ extends not just to the creative elements of a project but to the impact of that project on the natural world. Is it better to use a sustainably sourced timber which will have a lifespan of perhaps 15 years or should we specify a more hardwearing but perhaps (at source) less environmentally friendly material that will last a lifetime in situ? Do we consider shorter life span materials which are compostable and biodegradable over more hard-wearing ones that do not need replacing? The science to measure sustainability is complex and evolving but as professionals, it is fundamental to our role that we do our best to both understand it and make the most appropriate choices for the design.

Sustainability too needs to extend to the user. A client may commission the design of a space at a time point where they are, for example; a professional couple with a young family. Will the design of their outdoor space extend throughout the many cycles of their own and their children’s lives? The interaction between user and place will change over time and good design will flex and mature with that evolution.

Some design concepts, like Bauhaus have stood the test of time. They aren’t set architectural or artistic ideas but more a set of principles that aim to unify, create and transcend traditional design principles. They offer us a chance to reduce the superfluous and consider the translation of design into practice. ‘Right design, right time’ means helping our clients and our design teams, create spaces that, like Bauhaus, are examples of exemplary design both now and for future generations.

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

 

 

 

 

Photo credit:

Antoine Beauvillain