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Twenty - first century present-day landscape design has a few commandments : There will be drama and tenseness , straight line and correct slant , restrained planting and forward-looking use of materials and , of course , Orcinus orca furniture . But tot the design challenge posed by differing region of North America ? That ’s where it get interesting .
Sleek usage - made Brown Jordan piece of furniture under a base of Russian olive trees ( Elaeagnus angustifolia ) ask in linger . photograph by : Steve Gunther .
In the gamy desert of Santa Fe , New Mexico , interior decorator Edith Katz of Laboratory of Landscape Architecture creates dazzling garden that not only thrive in the region ’s often - coarse weather , but also hold their own against the rank enormousness of the natural landscape painting . Success here requires a certain philosophical viewpoint .
“ I ’m a contextualist , ” enunciate Katz . “ In this landscape painting , for representative , there ’s a golf game course in the foreground and the near - infinite terrain of the foothills in the midview and length . Rather than assay and make these potent element go aside , I consciously opt instead to relate them to the garden , using them as point of reference points in our design . ”
This view just off the patio understandably bear witness how the cautiously placed flora mirror the raw landscape of the wholesale foothill beyond . A xeriscape plant life palette of soaptree yucca ( Yucca elata ) and santolina , befuddled thyme and red blistering poker is localise in a bed of crushed local stone , inset with beds of crushed crimson lava rock . Photo by : Steve Gunther .
A perfect model of this precept is the garden on the west terrace , where close examination reveals element trickily mirroring the loopy build of the golf course just beyond it . Like the late landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx , of whom she ’s an admirer , Katz here make distinct painterly shape on the earth plane with the minimal plantings acting as counterpoints .
At the front of the star sign , an aluminum - edged interpretation of a modern parquet circle write of native and alien industrial plant in an undulating ground planing machine pattern of different colors and textures of crush stone and lava stone is a amatory element that provides color class around . The reflecting pool fence in the surge glass wall of the atrium was created to showcase the remarkable Dale Chihuly chandelierlike carving suspended inside .
fervency meets water with a Dale Chihuly chandelier set aside over an indoor mull kitty at this Santa Fe garden designed by Edith Katz . The shallow basin continues outside , wrapping the atrium for a wizardly effect . guest authorize the artful installation of crushed crushed rock planted withHesperaloeand sage on their way to the front doorway edge in a red metallic element bod the colour of a high - desert sundown . Photo by : Steve Gunther .
“ A Western landscape with its interplay of visible radiation and shadow is unlike anywhere else . Wallace Stegner say it well when describing this region : ‘ You have to get over the color green ; you have to take leave associating beauty with gardens and lawn ; you have to get used to an cold-blooded scale . ’ For me , that ’s meant learning the value of restraint . ”
constraint is a theme ( though on a fashion - different weighing machine ) in Palo Alto , California , where tight urban lots and the midcentury modern aesthetic of home plate designed by Joseph Eichler demand unsentimental editing in the landscape . Eichler , a visionary developer from the late ’ 40s through the other ’ 70s , build some 2,700 of these sportsmanlike , silken houses in Palo Alto — more than anywhere in the United States . When the architecture is this compelling , how then to make a stiff landscape painting that complements but does n’t overwhelm the residence ?
“ You have to fight fire with ardour , ” says landscape designer Bernard Trainor , whose business firm specializes in these historic property . “ When the man - made component are this powerful , each feature of speech in the landscape must have its own long suit . ”
A recently quicken Joseph Eichler planetary house in Palo Alto offers view of this garden , design by Bernard Trainor , from every way , including the master suite seen here . The fateful screen behind the dining terrace is a nod to Nipponese garden design . Photo by : Jason Liske / Redwood Design .
Look no further than Trainor ’s pattern for a Palo Alto client , where a retentive runnel of concrete block wall on one side and the dramatic linear fencing and black screen on the other make his point . “ We used materials interchangeable to those detect inside the mansion as our start head , and while we were n’t completely literal , we did keep to the idea of the rigid , clean assembly line of the building , ” he says . “ What was important here was to continually edit and refine , edit and refine until we achieved the veracious balance . ”
To have the plants and garden features reflect , Trainor used a mix of local low gravel , simple-minded pullulate concrete pavers and a few flagstone to make the flooring , and then brought in large - scale of measurement boulders to tally subtle musical rhythm to the landscape painting . One of the most magical elements here is the outflow installed into the occlusion paries . A dim-witted stainless - steel spout trickles water onto a large rock — it looks so natural , it could almost go unnoticed if not for the sound .
The cubic decimetre - shaped court packs a lot of aliveness expanse into a small distance . A low , poured - concrete wall just decent of the wall - mounted fountain permit for extra seats , and the dining set ( from Design Within Reach ) hints at romantic dinners under the stars . Photo by : Jason Liske / Redwood Design .
Sustainability plays a significant part in the purpose of this garden . “ Green is not only about using less fabric overall , but using it more thoughtfully , ” state Trainor . Plants are a with child part of that imperative and so were chosen not only for their rich colors and strong lines but their adaptability to periods of drought . Aloes , kangaroo paw , ferns , succulent and a grove or two of bamboo are quite glad and luminous under the late - good afternoon Lord’s Day when this garden is most often enjoyed by the homeowner .
“ This aim relies on negative space . The space between the features , the means it allows the light to turn its deception and the sense of repose that external respiration room brings . While the technical is significant , we can never forget the remedial value of a garden , ” says Trainor .
Moving north to Vancouver , British Columbia , a region where it ’s frequently overcast , rainwater is a path of life and gardens can get drab really fast . Watermark Gardens ’ primary clothes designer Kari Renaud solved the hoar - daytime job by front loading this contemporary garden with light and greened it up twelvemonth - stave with hardscape element douse in this chromaticity .
Behind green glass panel , a tranquil world wait visitor . Nipponese maples and weeping jumbo sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum‘Pendulum ’ , a rather impulsive chromosomal mutation of a gargantuan redwood ) expand in the 166 - some - odd days of rain each yr . The neat - lined better-looking furniture is from Denmark ’s Cane - short letter . Photo by : Janis Nicolay .
confront with a intriguing web site , Renaud , an award - win couturier ( in 2007 , two of her gardens — this and another one — received Awards of Excellence from the BC Landscape & Nursery Association ) best bonk for her sleek , residential landscapes , resolve two years ago that rather than “ mend ” the lot , she would rethink its entire role , transforming it into a frontyard anteroom . “ We want to create an ' out-of-door foyer ' where the homeowners can recognise their guests and create an experience outside that mite at what they ’re about to see deep down . ”
The theatrics begin right at the curb bit with a set of 5 - foot - by-5 - understructure glass - board walls . Snuggled right up against the city sidewalk , these panels are two piece of paper of tempered , sandblasted glass placed scratchy sides together and fluid sides out , and gibe into a usage metallic element frame . When one evanesce through these instrument panel , the garden opens to let out walls banked with Japanese maple , genus Hosta , euphorbias and an impressive stand of Gunnera .
The stucco bulwark adds to the year - round evergreen of this Vancouver , B.C. , garden , designed by Kari Renaud of Watermark Gardens , and hides the neighbour ’s hedge . The spilling sounds of the fountain help mute the sounds of the city street just steps away . Photo by : Janis Nicolay .
Inset into the 16 - groundwork - by-5 - foot painted concrete rampart , a black - pebble outflow cascades down a stainless - brand trough into a basin filled with papyrus , iris and water lily . The wall serves two purposes — first , to add another year - round green element and 2d , to wipe out from vista the neighbor ’s just - not - right wing - but - immovable hedgerow . Below , a base of nonslip , flamed - finish Italian Pietra Piasentina tile ( an Italian limestone that has the rime - proof , depleted - water - preoccupancy quality of granite ) shines and gleams under all that rainfall
Again , self - control and subject area rule the sidereal day . “ innovative design to me is grade by simplicity in the layout and planning of a space , ” says Renaud . “ Ultimately , it is the compounding of particular in stuff that result in restrained dramatic event . ”
These three designers consciously resist the “ just because we can ” trend by staying true to the conditions inbuilt in their area , ferment with rather than against their environs , and respecting water system and other dwindle resources . How very modern .
