How to design a garden that seamlessly combines architecture with landscapeDuncan Heather, guest writer for Landscaping Network and principal at the Oxford College of Garden Design
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A student created plan that starts from the house and works outwards.
This student's plan incorporates geometric shapes with straight lines near the home.
A skilled designer knows how to successfully break the rules, as this student's plan shows.
Rule 1: The House is the Most Important Part of Any Garden
You can't ignore it! It's almost always the largest, most dominant structure in the garden. Your journey starts and ends with the house and therefore any garden plan, should always start from the building and work outwards.
Rule 2: The Designers Main Objective is to Link Building with Site
Probably the most important rule of all and yet the one that is least understood. This rule applies to any landscape scheme, whether residential or commercial. If the design is to be successful, then it must blend the building seamlessly into its environment. To achieve this, the designer needs to be able to combine symmetry with biology, i.e. architecture with landscape. Because most buildings are made from geometric shapes and the garden is essentially a biological environment, great care is needed to join these two opposing forms together. Try linking them too quickly and they will clash, creating a meaningless amorphous squiggle where the house looks like it's just landed from space.
Rule 3: All Shapes Close to the House Should be Symmetrical
This follows on from rule 2. Because the building is predominantly made up of straight lines based on squares and rectangles, the area around the building should copy these geometric, mathematical shapes to help link the house with the garden. The terraces, paths, formal pond and planting beds should be designed using straight lines.
If you don't believe me, I will try to convince you by using an interior design analogy. "You would not put an amoebic shaped rug into a rectangular shaped room. Instead you would use a symmetrical rug/carpet." The same rules of interior design are just as relevant for outside design. The lawn is the carpet of the garden and the worst thing you can do, is to put a wiggly edged lawn into a rectangular shaped garden. Creating wiggles and squiggles won't make your garden look natural. Nature makes it natural! As soon as you add planting to a straight edged border the plants grow and spill over and soften all the hard lines.
Rule 4: Use a Grid to Help you Design
Because you want your garden to link back to the house, it makes sense to use shapes and pattern on your plan, that relate back to the scale and proportion of the building. "The Scale of the Grid is derived from the Mass of the Property". Every grid is unique to site. This may in reality appear subliminal, but using a grid which is derived from the proportions and scale of the building means that all the patterns you use for the garden plan, relate directly back to the house and the grid also acts as a guide for the designer so they can quickly check size and scale of different features.
Rule 5: There are No Rules
This isn't strictly true because I have just given you a small sample of some. However you first need to understand the rules of geometry and design before you can break them. If we all stuck rigidly to rules, we would end up with some very dull design, but conversely, few universities and colleges give any clear guidance to design teaching, so that students graduate without a clear design philosophy.
At the Oxford College of Garden Design we run a professional on-line postgraduate level course and together with our sister site MyGardenSchool we also offer 4 week on-line short courses in all aspects of gardening. One of the main reasons our students have been so successful, is that we do teach a design philosophy by verbalising and explaining why something works and why something doesn't.
Read about eight more landscape design principles on GardenDesign.com.
FAQs
Design principles include unity, balance, transition, focalization, proportion, rhythm, repetition and simplicity.
What are the 5 elements of landscape design? ›
An aesthetic landscape design incorporates five key elements: line, form, texture, color and scale. The perfect balance of these design features appeals to the eye and brings harmony to a space.
What is the rule of three in landscape design? ›
Three plants creates balance
If you have enough space, group them in an equilateral triangle. This looks particularly good with mounding or vertical plants. Be sure to leave some space between the plants, especially if they are three different kinds.
What are the 7 rules of design? ›
The fundamental principles of design are: Emphasis, Balance and Alignment, Contrast, Repetition, Proportion, Movement and White Space. Design differs from art in that it has to have a purpose. Visually, this functionality is interpreted by making sure an image has a center of attention, a point of focus.
What are the 6 rules of design? ›
Start with the six principles of design: balance, pattern, rhythm, emphasis, contrast, and unity. Just as instructional design models and methodologies shape your training strategy, so should these principles shape your basic visual strategy.
What are the 10 principles of landscape design? ›
The principles of landscape design include the elements of unity, scale, balance, simplicity, variety, emphasis, and sequence as they apply to line, form, texture, and color. These elements are interconnected. Landscape design is a process of developing practical and pleasing outdoor living space.
What is the first rule of landscaping? ›
01: OBEY THE "LAW" OF SIGNIFICANT ENCLOSURE
The law of significant enclosure says that we feel enclosed when the vertical edge of a space is at least one-third the length of the horizontal space we're inhabiting.
What are the three principles of landscape design? ›
Design principles guide designers in organizing elements for a visually pleasing landscape. A harmonious composition can be achieved through the principles of proportion, order, repetition, and unity. All of the principles are related, and applying one principle helps achieve the others.
What should be included in a landscape design? ›
A landscape design is like a floor plan for an outdoor area. Like a floor plan, a landscape design creates a visual representation of a site using scaled dimensions. Landscape plans include natural elements like flowers, trees, and grass as well as man-made elements such as lawn furniture, fountains, and sheds.
What are the hard elements of landscape? ›
Hard landscaping most commonly refers to elements such as paths, driveways, drainage systems, electrics, fencing, decking, patios, steps and walls. These elements then provide the base for soft landscaping elements such as grass, plants, and vegetation.
Strong and bright colors like reds, yellows, and greens are said to make people feel more energized. They can also be attention-grabbing and really stand out from the rest of the landscape. But colors that are more muted like lighter pastel shades, pinks, and whites can make people feel calmer.
What is order in landscape design? ›
Order. The principle of order considers organization and balance within the landscape design. Spatial organization refers to the three-dimensional arrangement of the landscape, including the lay of the land as well as plants and structures.
What are the 3 concepts of a landscape? ›
One method of describing landscapes divides a landscape into three basic elements: patches, corridors or buffers, and matrix (fig. 2). Figure 2 — The landscape described in basic landscape ecology terms.
What are the seven golden principles of design? ›
There are seven traditional and universal principles of design, which are significant across the industry: emphasis, balance & alignment, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space.
What are the seven 7 principles of design how does the proper use of these principles of design affect the art viewer? ›
The principles of design are a designer's guidelines to create a compelling and appealing composition. Emphasis, balance and alignment, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space are the cornerstones of the principle of design.
What are the three major principles of landscape design? ›
Elements and Principles
The principles are the fundamental concepts of composition—proportion, order, repetition, and unity—that serve as guidelines to arrange or organize the features to create an aesthetically pleasing or beautiful landscape.
