Streetscape and Garden Walls in London are lying. Urban designers move with your art culture.

What the F*k is this? Its a FAKE garage door.

Forget the fact that it is not being used as a garage – lets just pretend its a garage and everyone will be happy.

Mr and Mrs Blah Blah restored their wonderful garage but they can not actually use it.  Never mind a streetscape is never ruined by a car parked outside the house.

I think the theroists call this type of thing ‘facadism’.

Anyway, there is no streetscape design excitement in East Twickenham, London.

But quick over here . Oh thank god a teeny weeny bit of inner joy on my daily walk. A bit of anti-heritage street art by the local hooligans c. 2000.

I suspect clever use of gardening space is happening behind people’s houses

I don’t know many people in the UK and therefore do not often get invited into people’s home for a little look however I must say from my observation to date the front yard and the back yard treatments are completely different. Do you have any pics to support or refute this claim? I am going to start documenting this little observation…submissions would be grand

Thinking Gardens: gardens in the UK are conservative – have you looked at the role of town planning in all this?

I read ThinkinGardens and it tells me that UK gardens are  conservative. Agreed. It is also reflected in the UK’s architecture. The built environment is held by a very conservative design shackle. Working example below.

I thought it was a fairly accepted notion amongst professional designers that it is not a good idea to make alterations to a historical anything without making a visual distinction between old and new. That is what we learned at Melbourne University, Australia..and that is pretty conservative anyway so I never ever thought it would be a controversial subject amongst design practioners. Wrong.

My first lesson in historical landscape treatments in the UK was upon consideration of tending for the public square outside Parliament House in London. The firm I was working for at the time looked at me like I had spoken of true evil when I suggested that perhaps we should consider a treatment that did NOT try to blend the alteration with the existing streetscape.  Wow…….but how can this be?……Europe  is just over there and they do insertion of ‘new’ in ‘old’ all the time ?…..some of the most exciting landscapes are created by this tension …..new ways of using space are developed.

What is going on – London is a hub for design and art?

Perhaps all the exciting stuff is happening behind walls – where there are less design laws.

I have been to a  few open architecture days and am always surprised how the historical façades in London are kept pristine to maintain streetscape character – all the contemporary stuff is well concealed from the public gaze. Why can’t we see ‘Old’ and ‘New’ together. What is wrong with ‘New’?

–  the town planners are very busy controlling whether a roof can be a pitch of 30 degrees or 50 degrees – god there are so many issues here – but I suspect the lack of a contemporary design response to gardens may be partly influenced by the unwieldy nature of the planning laws ….this leads me to my next point.

A new type of garden is evolving worldwide – and I wonder whether UK planning laws are flexible enough to allow it to occur naturally in the UK – its driven by the need to create sustainable urban living  – we are seeing a convergence of architecture and plants – and I have already stumbled into a few planning problems whilst trying to install a green wall product (Woolly Pockets – a vertical planter that is attached to walls).

So if I am having this problem with these fairly harmless planters (that look fantastic) what other products that have the potential to update our urban spaces are hindered as well- what is happening with solar panels, water butts etc.

Are planning laws partly responsible for the demise of contemporary responses to domestic garden design? Thinking Gardens I reakon this topic is important to your discussion. People need to experiment, and people need to see those experiments to develop ideas. How can this be done when streetscapes that respond to a different social condition have to be kept intact?

See Through Concrete – Great Potential for Creating Garden Art in Contemporary Gardens

Translucent concrete is a relatively new product (launch 2006) that offers plenty of scope for creating garden art in the contemporary garden. Kerry Jackson, a landscape designer who operates in Devon and Cornwall area of the UK,  has been experimenting with the product. With his background in sculpture he see plenty of design potential for this material ‘As more and more people in Devon and Cornwall see the potential of translucent concrete within the garden and home, translucent concrete will become more and more visible’.

Translucent concrete allows light to be transmitted via optical fibres mixed into a fine concrete mix.  The inventor of this technology is Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi who has recently released prefabricated blocks of the material capable of bearing loads.  The technology allows light to be transmitted through walls –  it appears to defy logic  but it really does work.

Here is a little except from Losonczi’s website

Thousands of optical glass fibres form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of each block.  The proportion of the fibres is very small (4%) compared to the total volume of the blocks. Moreover, these fibres mingle in the concrete because of their insignificant size, and they become a structural component as a kind of modest aggregate. Therefore, the surface of the blocks remains homogeneous concrete.  In theory, a wall structure built from light-transmitting concrete can be several meters thick, because the fibres work without almost any loss in light up until 20 meters.  Load-bearing structures can be also built of these blocks, since glass fibres do not have a negative effect on the well-known high compressive strength value of concrete.  The blocks can be produced in various sizes and with embedded heat-isolation.

Concrete is evolving. It is a beautiful material when used well.  Its overuse and poor finishings have given it a bad name. As with all aspects of design the success of a great idea is reliant on excellent workmanship. Working with concrete is like making a cake, but harder. The ingredients need to be right and they need to be added at the right time. Plus the weather needs to behave – no raining. Oh and all that needs to coincide with the programming of building works. Get yourself a good concreter.

Garden Accessories. Britian HATES Wind chimes. I HATE noisy neighbours. Contemporary Gardens need Mute Buttons

Scrolling around the garden accessories department of the biggest digital supermarket – Google- has led me to a very funny poll – according to the Daily Express a poll conducted by  www.OnePoll.com the most hated garden accessories are wind chimes.  Mmmm. Noise ? Now that is an interesting dimension to garden accessories that Garden Beet has not addressed to date.

Noise knows no property boundaries and I can truly sympathise with loss of amenity as a result of loud neighbours…. but wind chimes?  let me say I would prefer a wind chime garden accessory any day compared to noisy neighbours .

…my Number One HATED garden accessories area the noisy neighbour …..they are the worst gardening accessories of all.

..chilling out in the back garden saturday morning……picking out weeds from an over designed garden bed and bang…..the neighbours are home from the market screaming about the cost of apples this week…..then some other domestic dreary dialogue all with the passion of a wild love drama screen play.

.ahh ……I began devising plots… retaliatory sound sculptures, nosiewalls it was enough for me and I dare not go back to my Mediterranean suburb of Thornbury Australia until my neighbours (aka my garden accessories) have dunk themselves to oblivion

……here in the all so lovely picturesque Richmond, London people politely excuse themselves after mearly yelping ‘careful darling’ as the 2 year old approaches moving traffic…….how the tables have turned …..I am now the hated garden accessory in my new neighhbourhood…..I have children who scream, I scream at them ……we also have a hideous tramploine with security fencing…ahh the eyesore… but as my Thornbury neighbour informed me when I went to request a noise reduction program ………. ‘we are just living’  ….. .jeepers creepers my family and I now need a large garden accessory mute button – any sound designers out there?

Site Office decking jumps from the backdoor to Melbourne’s Foreshore in St.Kilda, Australia – and wins a Landscape Architectural Award – 2009

Timber decking is sublime.

It’s edges do need to be beautifully finished and the lines exactly parallel. It is such a soft material and the Australian Sun warms it well.

Here in London Town there is less of an obsession with timber decking than you tend to find in Melbourne.

Perhaps its the climate but there is  a groove myth that may also be preventing its popularity. There is an assumption (amongst those I know here in the UK) that these god awful grooves need to be inserted to prevent slipping and hence it has become a maligned material.

Well fellow nothern hempishpere earthlings take a look at what Site Office has dished up along St Kilda foreshore in Melbourne, Australia.

A gigantic roller coaster of decking without one groove. I love the flush levels, I love the timber lie backs.

Site Office have kept with the tradition of reserving timber decking for those ‘special don’t bring your dirty feet any further places’  (ie the 2 metre square rectangle that lies between the kitchen and the grass of the backyard  in most eastern suburb homes of Melbourne).

Site Office have moved the special decking from Mum and Dad’s  to the public fun strip of all things naughty, St. Kilda. What fun.

Who has time to design? Eco chic garden design for those on the move

I have started another blog on garden design for those on the move.  Maybe you are renting, you can  not afford to do a large redesign of your garden or you just do not have the time required to do a complete garden redesign. If this is you hopefully you will find this blog useful.

I am going to suggest ways to accessorise your garden without having to change ground levels, move that huge outbuilding or rip down that big tree.

Not everyone has the luxury of remodelling their patch of earth. I am a Landscape Architect and I have never had an opportunity to completely remodel my own private space because I have been too busy doing other peoples outdoor spaces, moving countries, having children, moving house and so on. Good solid design takes time and sadly some money. It can not be wipped up over night – but lucky for us more transient types we have GARDEN ACCESSORIES all modern eco and chic.

Let your hairdown, get rid of those architectural glasses  and lets have some fun with the great outdoors.

Serious insects will be better served elsewhere. Now do not fear I am not a pure hedonist – all due respect will be given to sound eco principals. Some suggestions will be inexpensive others may require more money – however I will always ensure that you can take your accessories to another earthbound place and ensure that its eco-footprint is minimised.

See you at

ECO-CHIC GARDEN IDEAS no dig, instant fun

Rain Chain Design Tips and Review

 

Om Rain Chain

Rain Chains can replace your down pipe and create a useful garden sculpture at the same time. Rain Chains have been used by the Japanese for hundreds of years and were originally developed to harvest water.  They are also added to the garden by feng shui design experts.

A rain chain works in the following way:

1. When it rains the water will flow from your roof to your gutter

2.  From your gutter rain water (or run-off) is normally directed to the stormwater system via a downpipe. However with a rain chain, rather than being directed down an enclosed pipe (downpipe) into the stormwater system , the water is channelled down the centre of the chain to a collection basin or rockery.  Even better the rain chains deposits the water to a well design wetland or a water collection point (to reuse your rain water for the garden).

3. Of course you can still direct the water from the rain chain into the stormwater system however that would be a missed opportunity.

Rain Chains are really just a  cosmetic component of eco-living however if you believe aesthetics are important then a rain chain might serve you well.  When the rain chain is used with other techniques such as green roofs and wetlands or a water collection point we really start to address Sustainable Drainage System (known as SUDS in the UK). 

Nevertheless on its own a rain chain can create a beautiful sculpture.  The chain is visible and so is the water. The mechanics of a downpipe are basically revealed rather than hidden. Rain chains create a moving sculpture (known as kinetic sculpture). And its all done with something that is usually adding to the visual clutter in the garden. The normal response to a downpipe is to make it blend in.

This design response is the opposite. Here we are saying

‘We need a downpipe so lets make it beautiful and celebrate its function’.

Plus as we all know rainwater has become a scare commodity. Lets give it the respect it deserves.

The best chains are those that do direct the water, will last  and also look great at the same time. Remember – you want to look at your rainchain and not just replace ugly with ugly.

 One of the best materials that fits this criteria is solid copper. This is an important consideration as a poor quality product made from cheaper materials will not last – they will rust and create another problem –  erosion  or increased stormwater run off with additional pollutants.  If you can not afford to buy a good quality rain chain do not buy one at all.