BBQ Garden Accessories are integrated – David Coleman Architecture

Thanks to Contemporist for this image.

When I see landscape and buildings working together – I love it.

A more unusual garden accessory suspect –  the BBQ/open fire – is not an afterthought. It is integrated into the building’s decking which is acting like a plinth for the house. The excess rock on site has also been reused to build the gabion walls which are designed to create privacy and spatial division.

This landscape response seems to makes sense with the site.  I am left wondering if it is finished? Perhaps the architects felt the plant material bit of the design was not needed – or perhaps not their skill set?

If you get around to asking them before me here is their website http://www.davidcoleman.com/

 

Landscape screening to solve ugly sky lines. Dizzy green walls cover the 18th floor in Portland.

Are green walls about to cover every ‘ugly’ building that was built post 1950? This vertical gardening thing is catching and it seems that it may be rolled out as the panacea to all things that Prince Charles would probably deem as inappropriate architecture.

Landscaping is often used to ‘soften’ buildings or ‘screen’ a building. Of course it is always better to get the building looking and functioning without the need to hide it with a massive ball of nondescript green stuff. But alas ‘greenery’ is frequently tacked on at the end of a building project to produce a visual screen. Up until recently the ugly tall bits have usually been left to litter the skyline.

Not now.

The green screening phenomena is being carried straight up the building façade. The landscape  has morphed with the building and has becoming the facade.  Green is the new black and Rock’n’Roll vertical gardening is sure to keep evolving. All we need now is a living building that expands and contracts with the rythmn of all our collective breaths.

Living walls at such dizzying heights requires consideration. It is not easy to whack a living wall over an 18 storey building and hope it will survive. One only has to look at Paradise Park’s living ‘dead’ wall to know that installing a garden at 90 degrees requires design PLUS maintenance PLUS good horticultural knowledge PLUS maintenance PLUS maintenance.

For more information on an easier more domestic scale type of  green wall system go to the Vertical Garden section of Garden Beet’s chic garden accessories home page and check out Woolly Wally Pockets.

Contemporary gardens and the return to ornamentation – is that the same as accessories?

OK Icon magazine are claiming that ornamentation has returned to architecture  December 2009. Where does that leave gardens and their accessories? Anyone? Critical theorists can you please come forth? How are contemporary gardens explained by this theory?

Green roofs gone all wild and woolly – they can be more than just sedum mats

Sedum mats are great for green roofs but so much more can be done. And here is a great bit of architecture by Levitt Goodman Architects showing what is possible. These photos were taken from Contemporist. By the way I love that this building’s proportions respects its neighbour. Great juxtaposition. Toronto Canada.

 

 

 

Australian Bark Architecture and Landscape

Contemporist Architecture News landed in my inbox and look what opened up!  A beautiful siting of a building in my much missed home landscape, Australia.

 A very site responsive design by Bark Architects in Queensland Australia – and this is their office!

I do spot a bike in one of the photos so it seems that these guys are not located too far in the bush that they can not reach civilisation.

Notice how they were able to retain the Eucalypt tree in front of the building? Their footing is designed to ensure the tree’s root system was not adversely affected by the building whilst also creating a floating effect – and what a view!

This design has made me very home sick – an immediate emotional response was created for me by this design – which is a strong indication that they have managed to retained the landscape character of this site.

Landscapes in the SE of England

I was living in Sussex a few moons ago and I was always slightly disorientated. Partly because the roads needed to meanander around waterways, topography etc but also because the road corridor in the area was planted with exactly the same plantings over and over again.

The design rationale appeared to me to be ‘screen the road from everyone and lets not think how we are going to acheive this screen. Roll out the next 5 miles of woodland hedge ‘. 

Many town bypasses appeared the same as well  – there is practically no difference in the landscaping between the bypass of  East Grinstead, a town in Sussex, and the bypass to the town outside of the Rodings in Essex. Yet one is north of London and the other is south. Does this seem odd to anyone else?

Does this matter? Well yes because it could be so much better without much extra budget. The landscaping could be more interesting, varied and actually become part of the navigational structure  for the road user.

Perhaps the Highway Agency has never been called to defend their design approach.  Is the Highway Agency aware of what is happening in other parts of the world?