SKETCHBOOK PROJECT ROUNDUP

The sketchbook project has been a two-fold process for me. I have recorded visually in my sketchbook, alongside collecting images/photographs/research on my blog. I wanted to keep them both separate, because when I work on a project I use my computer all the time to research and record my findings. If I ever do make sketches, they are only really for very quick reference- and do not hold a lot of detail or notes for me to refer to at a later date. However, they can be useful for capturing things on the go.
I feel that this has been working well for me in this project, but it is now time to start bringing everything together to form more cohesive design ideas which could be applied to designs I may make in the future.  I will take references from my sketchbook and visual sources I have got on my blog and see what the results are.  

I've never done this before, so I will be interested to see the results....

IMAGE OF THE DAY

"Mushroom cloud of stone erupts in the Ténéré desert, remnant of its watery past. This pedestal rock began as a mass of pebbly sandstone. Its sculptors were cycles of hot and cold, wet and dry, as well as blowing sand, which caused the sloughing off of shards scattered at the base."
(Text and photograph from "Journey to the Heart of the Sahara," March 1999, National Geographic magazine)

ANDREA COCHRAN

ANDREA COCHRAN
Landscape Architect
USA
Find out more here: www.acochran.com

AC is one of my all time favorite designers, who combines bold modernist design with natural forms, plants and landscapes to soften hard edges. She is so uncluttered in her designs, and plays with large open areas to make you feel simultaneously within a garden and also within the landscape beyond its boundaries. She is based and does most of her work in San Fransico, and therefore chooses materials and plants that she knows will be enhanced by the light or by reflections of the sky.
In an interview I read with her (on the American Society of Landscape Architects website) she sights these modernist designers + minimalist artists as an influence on her work: Dan Kiley / Garrett Eckbo / James Rose / Robert Irwin / Fred Sandback 

This is a nice quote from her, talking about a rooftop garden she created for an affordable housing community:

"The point I started with was that I saw this man up there, he had the most beautiful broccoli growing in his two by three foot bed, and I don't know what else was in there, but this broccoli was unbelievably beautiful. He said I come up here and this is my therapy. I can get my hands in the dirt. I was almost in tears. I thought it was the most meaningful thing I'd ever done to just give this guy a chance to just be outside, be in the sun and work with his hands in the dirt and grow something in the five foot square plot. I think it's really worked well. When he's up there working, teenagers come up and hang out. Adults are up there working on their gardens so the teenagers are being monitored. It's not a leftover space, isolated, where things can happen. It becomes this environment that's more of a community, and people kind of watch out for one another".

 
 

PLANTS AND PLANTING SYMBOLS GRAPHICS SHEET

These are the plants I chose for the border I designed for the plants and planting graphics sheet. I was particularly interested in creating late summer - autumn interest as well as providing winter structure.

Acer griseum

Fagus sylvatica (hedge)

Buxus sempervirens (cubes)

Salvia nemerosa 'Caradonna'

 

Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing'

 Digitalis purpurea 'Alba'

Geranium renardii

Iris 'Lightning Streak'

Pachysandra terminalis

Deschampsia cepitosa

Stipa gigantea

 

CURRENTLY READING

The Fundamentals of Landscape Architecture
Tim Waterman
2009

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT II

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (b.1867 - d.1959)
Architect / Interior Designer / Designer
USA 

F-L-W also used to design the interiors for his homes and produced some really beautiful stained glass work and furniture. 
When thinking about the minimalist garden, the shapes in the stained glass really stand out. They almost look like garden plans, where the shapes could be planting. When looking at them like that, you can start to see where the ratio of mass and void is so important. I think the furniture would look good in all three gardens. I will look further in to the furniture at a later date.

 

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (b.1867 - d.1959)
Architect / Interior Designer / Designer
USA

Whenever I have creative work to do, I always revisit the work of F-L-W.  His use of materials and shapes has always particularly interested me - the way that he combines natural elements like wood or stone with clearly man made concrete or sharp lines next to water. He also doesn't create a barrier between his architecture and the landscape, managing to blend the two together,  but yet also keeping a clear distinction between them. Clever stuff!

MYOUNG HO LEE (b. 1975 -)

Photographer

South Korea

'Tree' Series

To achieve these photographs, large cranes are used to hold the white canvas up behind the trees, and then minimal digital retouching is applied to remove any visible cables. 

I think they are incredible and really inspiring for the gardens project. By removing the tree from its background you are really able to look at its form and appreciate how individual each one is. This could be put to really good effect in the Japanese garden, where specimen trees such as cloud trees and Acers are already used for their shapes and architectural qualities. Also, within the woodland garden, it could be interesting to highlight one tree out of the 'woods' to make you actually look at it as a single thing, rather than just a mass of leaves and bark....

 

 

 

PATH PATTERNED RUG

The pattern on this rug makes me think of overlapping paths. I could apply this idea to any of my chosen garden styles - just adapting it by using different hard landscaping materials..