Showing posts with label a. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
What goes into a design
Is it art? Is it design? Is it symbolism or is it just functionality of space laid out on paper? The design in the picture was actually co-designed by another design professional who gave me the concept to draw out and render as you see it.As the question is asked, what went into it in order to make it a design? I would say that all of what was mentioned above goes into it...and much more. In the past when I have quoted prices to potential clients regarding design work, I have been met with some resistance. It was almost as if I had to defend my abilities and years of experience as a designer.
What goes into a plan is simple:
- My ideas of what the space can be used for.
- My knowledge of the building code as well as grading and drainage.
- My keen understanding of site conditions, soil conditions, sun exposure and existing plant material which all dictate what new plants can be introduced.
- Building Material choices
- Construction Phases
- A proper scale to build from.
- My years of experience in designing and building projects.
- My years as a professional Gardener
- My understanding of people and personal understanding of the particular homeowner I am designing for.
- My 5 years of University education in Landscape Architecture.
- My background of art and nature studies both before and after my years of university.
Is it that simple once you read all of that? To some, yes, to others... well... they would not have a clue as to what I just listed were things that needed to be looked at when designing. Designing a space takes time, it takes well thought out ideas and a foundation of knowledge acquired over many years. I started my first year of school in 1995.... as fresh and as green as a seedling first coming out of the ground. It took a lot of nurturing and care before that seedling was able to stand on its own.
11 years have passed since I first learnt to properly use a scale bar or print a drawing up on a sheet greater then 8.5 x 11 in size. In that time I have learned to garden... professionally as well as personally. The fine art of pruning, planting, fertilizing and cultivating. Plant names and growing conditions....
As a labourer...
I have learned what it means to lay stone or interlock according to the lines I draw on paper. Dig holes for trees and shrubs to be planted in the spots where I marked them to be planted, or haul huge rocks around with either machinery or my bare hands according to where I spec them to be placed. Ive also learnt the business of concrete!!! Pour it, cut it, finish it, wheel barrel it, or even break it for removal. You name it, I have done it as a labourer! ... I am finished with doing the labour... one could say I had enough of knowing what it is like to smell diesel fuel at 6 am or even 8 pm for that matter!
As a sales rep....
Ive learnt pricing, salesmanship, client-professional relations, industry standards, contracting, legal issues and most importantly.... operating with morals and ethics.
What else can be said or looked at as a design professional? Ive had the schooling and the practical experience for the past 11 years ... so what else could go into a design when drawn by me? Well, not much else except the years of experience yet to come...
Paul
How Do You Classify A Garden
Gardening in this new millennium, has become a very different creature to what it once was. In some ways this is an oddity - gardening as a craft being at its core, so basic and archaic, is so intrinsically separate from technology.
Read More..
But technology has had its effect though - through the development and use of new materials and technologies but also through the spread of ideas via the internet and media.
A Plant Dominant Indigenous Garden
There is more discussion taking place today about gardening and about what defines a garden than has ever taken place before. This conversation is occurring between professionals and hobbyists, intellectuals and labourers.
Out of this conversation, a question Ive been asking myself lately is -
That is all true, but I see so many types of gardens, from all over the world that it is becoming harder to fit them into the traditional definitions that Im used to, and as a result, harder to understand.
I believe that people take comfort in our ability to divide and classify the world and put it into nice neat little boxes. In some ways it even makes us human - this ability to define something.
Gardening as an art-form, has not been spared this need to separate and define. Formal, Contemporary, English Country, Eastern, Natural, Wild, Indigenous, Zen...the list goes on and on.
A Structure Dominant Wild Garden
With this classification of gardens into types, and because of the continual segmentation, and the blurring of lines, I believe there exists a need to define gardens in more general terms.
To explain, Ill use an example that we as gardeners are familiar with - just as a particular plant has a Genus, and is then divided into its species, the Species of gardens (i.e. Tropical, Minimalist, Formal) need to be grouped together into Genera.
This is necessary, not for the sake of classifying for classifyings sake.
But rather as:
A Structure Dominant Formal Garden
But gardens are not always so easily put into their respective boxes, and here is where the Linnaeus analogy becomes inadequate. The gardens themselves may fall into more than one of the above groups. For example, a typical tropical garden at its essence is built around particular types of plants (Plant Dominant), but if the structure of the garden dominates, it could also be Structure Dominant. As to which is truly dominant would become a more subjective matter.
To use a more specific example - many of Gertrude Jekylls gardens would have been strongly Plant dominant, but with Sir Edwin Lutyens architectural input, they also had a very strong Structure dominance.
I see the practicalities of this idea being in creating a concept that makes communication clearer and simpler between client and designer, student and teacher, and between various professions relating to the gardening industry.
Gardening has been an art that has been nurtured by the hands of amateurs through the ages, and has at times, and in various cultures been analysed by the mind as well as the heart, but as the world gets internet-smaller, and communication happens across the globe, the thought processes behind garden design will and should become more apparent and utilised by the lay-person and professional alike.
For this reason, I believe that it would help if we spoke in similar terms.
A Plant Dominant Indigenous Garden
There is more discussion taking place today about gardening and about what defines a garden than has ever taken place before. This conversation is occurring between professionals and hobbyists, intellectuals and labourers.
Out of this conversation, a question Ive been asking myself lately is -
Even as I write that, I can hear some people saying, "Why would you even want to classify a garden? A garden is something to be appreciated and felt, and admired."How do you classify a garden?
That is all true, but I see so many types of gardens, from all over the world that it is becoming harder to fit them into the traditional definitions that Im used to, and as a result, harder to understand.
I believe that people take comfort in our ability to divide and classify the world and put it into nice neat little boxes. In some ways it even makes us human - this ability to define something.
Gardening as an art-form, has not been spared this need to separate and define. Formal, Contemporary, English Country, Eastern, Natural, Wild, Indigenous, Zen...the list goes on and on.
A Structure Dominant Wild Garden
With this classification of gardens into types, and because of the continual segmentation, and the blurring of lines, I believe there exists a need to define gardens in more general terms.
To explain, Ill use an example that we as gardeners are familiar with - just as a particular plant has a Genus, and is then divided into its species, the Species of gardens (i.e. Tropical, Minimalist, Formal) need to be grouped together into Genera.
This is necessary, not for the sake of classifying for classifyings sake.
But rather as:
- a way to clear up miscommunication between client and designer.
- a tool for teaching and passing on knowledge in clear terms.
- a spur to push designers and gardeners to try something different, and venture into new territory.
- Plant dominant - Where the gardens essence is about the plants themselves (Tropical, Indigenous/native, English Country, Natural, Collector)
- Concept dominant - These gardens revolve around an idea or concept(Zen, Feng Shui, Modern)
- Structure dominant - These gardens have strong shape and/or geometry (Formal, Contemporary, Minimalist)
- Function dominant - Where the function of the garden takes precedence (Lawn for playing, Parking Area, Patio)
A Structure Dominant Formal Garden
But gardens are not always so easily put into their respective boxes, and here is where the Linnaeus analogy becomes inadequate. The gardens themselves may fall into more than one of the above groups. For example, a typical tropical garden at its essence is built around particular types of plants (Plant Dominant), but if the structure of the garden dominates, it could also be Structure Dominant. As to which is truly dominant would become a more subjective matter.
To use a more specific example - many of Gertrude Jekylls gardens would have been strongly Plant dominant, but with Sir Edwin Lutyens architectural input, they also had a very strong Structure dominance.
I see the practicalities of this idea being in creating a concept that makes communication clearer and simpler between client and designer, student and teacher, and between various professions relating to the gardening industry.
Gardening has been an art that has been nurtured by the hands of amateurs through the ages, and has at times, and in various cultures been analysed by the mind as well as the heart, but as the world gets internet-smaller, and communication happens across the globe, the thought processes behind garden design will and should become more apparent and utilised by the lay-person and professional alike.
For this reason, I believe that it would help if we spoke in similar terms.
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