Gardens of the future

 Above are sketches of elements of my Barnwood Arboretum site. I'm really interested in creating fun and imaginative play structures for this site as I feel it is something that is currently really lacking.

Dan Pearson is one of my favourite garden designers, so naturally his work has to feature on my blog. Pearson’s wealth of planting knowledge is so evident with the way he composes a landscape. The above image is one of my favourites to highlight this. There’s something so quintessentially British about this area with the rich greens and creams, this is probably due to the large range of native planting Pearson uses. It also frames the scenery behind so well. This is the house that Pearson lives at for large portions of the year, so the plants probably get much more attention than they would in the usual person’s garden. Planting is something I’m extremely interested in as I think an entire landscape can be shaped purely off the texture, colour, smell, size etc of the planting used. This is something I am working on in my own designs currently.  

  This design intrigued me due to it being inspired by biophilia and the psychology of colours. Biophilia is the main design inspiration behind my North Place car park design for my Design Project module. I find the connection between people and nature and the deep psychological need for humans to be surrounded by greenery extremely interesting. I have actually visited this site twice on geography field trips both during my GCSE’s and A levels. I was of course visiting before this recent redesign. I think this redesign was extremely necessary as the space was really underused and slightly run down on both occasions that I went.  When looking at the design and access statement for this location I really enjoyed the concept drawings that overlayed different patterns on top of each other to form the basis of the overarching concept. This is something I have also been doing for my North Place design. 

 An idea I had for my Northplace Car park design was using an overlay of my own handprint to create the forms and massing of the buildings and surrounding elements. I felt this would strongly tie in with the biophillic brief of the site. Above is an attempt of me doing this. I really like the overall concept however I am not a massive fan of the outcome, I think this needs a lot of further development to be successful. 

 To the left is an image of the site plan we were given to complete an axonometric. On the right is my completed axonometric, rendered using felt pens. Previously I have really struggled to create axonometric views to scale. However, I found this one much simpler and I am really happy with the outcome. 

  Looking at Martha Schwartz’s work was important to me when presenting a variety of designers through my research. This is because Schwartz comes from an art background and chooses to not take Landscape Architecture so seriously. She instead breaks the norms and pushes the boundaries of what people are able to present as a garden. The above for example had “Constraints” as its leading inspiration. This was due to large constraints that the building had, for example there was no water access, no large budget, no maintenance, and it wasn’t able to bare weight. (Portland Architecture, n.d.) These are all fundamental things that are needed to build a traditional garden, especially the water access. She states that this garden is half a Zen Garden and half a French baroque garden. Although I appreciate the novelty of such a garden I do not thing it can be used, it’s definitely not inviting either. Supposedly workers of the building are able to sit out and enjoy their lunch he...

 For my Design module we are redesigning a large carpark into a biophillic hub. Above are some initial ideas I had for buildings and elements I could incorporate into the landscape. 

  Following on from the previous Sketchup file I made I then decided to import it into Twinmotion and render it to be much more lifelike. I added elements such as water features, planting, benches, etc. I am really happy with the outcome of this as I feel it looks much more realistic and professional than the Sketchup file I originally had. 

  Another element of my Barnwood Arboretum design is a treetop walkway. Above are some ideas for the structure I could use under my decking. 

For my sustainable technology module this term we are designing elements for an Arboretum. Above is a page of my doodles thinking about the natural play area and using cheap recycled materials to make fun play equipment.   

 For this task we were given a plan base with measurements on it. We then had to lay this out correctly in Sketchup and place people and trees in. We also had to take screenshots of different scenes in the landscape. 

  This water feature really captured my interest as I have never seen a water feature that appears so fog-like. It really creates a surreal atmosphere.  “For three seasons of the year the nozzles emit a dematerializing mist while in winter steam from the university heating plant creates a fog around the fountain. ”   (PWP, n.d.) This therefore makes the space able to be used throughout the seasons. In the summer months the mist will have a cooling effect on anyone that sits close by and in the winter the steam from the heating plant will warm the surrounding area very slightly. Whenever I think to add a water feature to one of my designs, I always choose a generic fountain or rill etc. This design uses the surrounding landscape to create a very functional while also eery and mysterious feature. This is something I need to consider, that not every water feature needs to look the same and that the entire feel of a place can be altered by granite rocks and a mist attach...

 

 

Today's lecture focused on creating a colour wheel with everyday objects. We each had to bring in two objects of one colour and one object of our colour mixed with the colour after it in the rainbow. I had the colour indigo.  

Oil pastels are not something I have used often before, and probably not something I will ever use again. I really love the outcomes some people are able to achieve with oil pastels but for me I find them too messy and unpredictable. I also struggle with the fact I am not able to mic colours like I can with paints. Overall, not my favourite material to use.