The Importance of Design Collaboration
We are in the midst of the detailed design stages for our contemporary garden design project in Essex. With the conceptual design phase for the landscape complete, work on the building is due to commence in the coming weeks with the landscape construction to follow later next year.
This project really highlights the importance and advantage to the client of a collaboration between an architect and landscape architect in the initial design stages. The benefits of this early strong working relationship can be many fold; not least to ensure that the quality and level of detail evident the design for the architecture is continued and congruous within the landscape but also for practical and cost-effective reasons.
On this site, design work for the landscape at this early stage has meant the opportunity to plant mature hedging around the boundary of the site in advance of the architectural build commencing. One of the main concerns with the site for this project was the imposing boundary of the neighbouring property. Planting mature hedging at this stage is a cost-effective way to mitigate against this problem. The 18-month construction period gives the plants time for growth and to establish further, thus allows for slightly smaller initial plants to be used.
A good collaboration between architect and landscape architect will develop cost-effective solutions such as this in order to provide the best possible overall delivery of the design in the most efficient way.
Of course, there are disadvantages to planting pre-construction as plants can be sensitive to the impact of heavy machinery and can be liable to damage during construction phases. With this in mind, it is also important to have a good working relationship with the main contractor. Good contractors will be well used to putting in place protection for sensitive landscapes (such as trees with preservation orders) so clear communication here should easily mean provision can be made.
With this site, the hedging is located well away from the main construction area and can be easily fenced from the building work, therefore any impact to the plants can be avoided.
The design itself is an exciting one, providing a seamless link between the building and the wider landscape through using the continuation of themes from Clear Architects’ contemporary building design into the garden. An example of this, is a linear cascading water feature which breaches the two levels of the terrace. We are excited to see the building begin to come to life and the landscape with it over the coming months and are working closely with our colleagues at Clear to ensure the results are something astounding.
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