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