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.

Top 7 Outdoor Design. 100% Design Show. London September 09.

Top 7 Outdoor Design Exhibits at the 100% Design Show – Earl’s Court London September 2009. These designs are in no particular order.

1.  A flower chair by Mari-Ruth Oda  www.mari-ruthoda.com –  smooth curves that direct the flow of water off the chair

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Urbis design pots – always beautiful  www.urbisdesign.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 3. A great apron with gloves that may be designed for outdoor use at a later date www.jamily.co.uk

 

 

 

 

4. Steel panels created by Natasha Webb www.designtograce.co.uk 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. www.noelblakeman.com great swival outdoor desk – featured at the Chelsea Flower show 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 6. ceramic art by regina heinz www.ceramart.net

 

 

 

 

 

7. Great prints by Miss Print mother and daughter textile designers www.MissPrint.co.uk – they advised me that their decals were suitable for outdoor use – I think I will need to experiment.

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?