An Introduction to Landscape and Garden Design

James Blake

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781351958752
• Edizione: 2
• Argomento: Ciencias biológicas
• Categoria: Horticultura

How do you design a landscape book suitable for its intended uses? How can the natural qualities of a landscape be enhanced with new features and focal points? How can you make pedestrians stay on the footpath? What kind of plant, path or wall should you put where, and what sort of contract should you choose for your client's contractor? This refreshingly down-to-earth introduction to the vast subject of landscape design and construction answers all these questions, guiding new students through the many facets of professional practice and welding together the artistic, legal, financial, environmental and management issues which can seem so dauntingly disconnected. Illustrated with original drawings, photographs, sample plans and facsimiles, including a new colour plate section, this readable classic has been fully revised and updated throughout. It opens with a completely new chapter which explains design and aesthetic principles, explores the history of our relationship to landscape, and shows how design principles can be applied to influence reactions to the finished site. The author then considers different elements of hard landscape and their relative merits in different situations. The soft landscape section includes coverage of the effects of mass and form, natural and abstract planting, and the difficult subject of plant selection. A step-by-step guide through all the stages of managing a project, from initial discussions with clients, site inspection, surveying and quoting, through tendering, contracting, contractual agreements, development from concept design to final plans and drawings, as well as maintenance, now includes the current information on CDM regulations and provides readers with a plain-speaking reference on client management and contractual administration. Added to the guide to drawing and lettering is an extensive section on computer-aided design. A bibliography and list of useful organization are also included.

The role of the landscape designer 1

Landscape design is an unusual profession, mixing as it does both the arts and the sciences. Landscape designers are holistic. Their work involves both poles of our culture: the practical and analytical at one end and the artistic and innovative at the other. The potential is there for the profession to be considered an art form (with all the creative inspiration and thinking that is therefore implied) and possibly equal to the fine arts themselves but perhaps with an even greater impact. After all, landscape is an art form brought to people, those who live and work in and around these landscapes and townscapes. The landscape has the potential to be an actual sculpture – a functioning, lived in sculpture – whereas in the case of the fine arts, people need to visit a gallery, listen to a disc or iPod, or read a book to be able to experience the art.

Landscape designers can have an immense impact on our lives, improving the richness and beauty of our surroundings. Landscape design demands a high degree of technical proficiency because the landscape must function and perform (in terms of its robustness and longevity in constant use) in a wide array of weather conditions. The client(s), who may include the public end users, will expect the landscape to endure in perpetuity in a safe and useable condition and any of its living soft materials to evolve with their increasing maturity, and consideration be given to how they will be managed over time.

The coming generation of landscape designers will have the opportunity to use their creative flair more than ever before. Clients are more open minded about ideas, especially if the ideas add value while saving them money. This sounds like a contradiction in terms because experience and advice often dictates that we get (in value terms) what we pay for but design decisions at every stage can achieve excellent value. To make such decisions and still end up with a scheme that works and yet looks good requires some important skills and knowledge. This book is intended to help designers build that skill and knowledge based on a firm foundation. There are four crucial traits that will really help designers achieve successful landscapes on the ground. I call them the four 'P's – pragmatism, practicality and precision. Yes, I know, that's just three. Lets deal with those first. Pragmatism is important because there are always constraints to be appraised and client opinions to take into account before creative ideas are imposed. Practicality is about applying technical skills and solutions in order to make ideas work. Precision is about being accurate and specific in terms of the drawings and support information produced. This should not put the designer off pursuing the inspiration to make places special, artistic, beautiful and uplifting. It just means mastering the above three Ps will really help designers achieve it.

In order to master these three 'P', a designer needs to possess one more 'P', and that is passion: passion for the subject, for designing, for solving problems and for engaging with the clients. It is passion that delivers the drive and the focus to make the grade. It is passion that delivers the commitment to lifelong learning. In this respect, all practitioners are students of design for as long as they practise their art. When I refer to the term student, it is in this context that I am using it.

Opportunities to create something special are increasing. The growing emphasis on the protection of the environment means that landscape issues are increasingly high on political agendas. As land becomes scarcer, it must be more efficiently used and better designed. There is an increasing appreciation of the value of external spaces to the wellbeing of communities and quality of life. This has been particularly evident in the Partnerships for Schools programme of school rebuilding (known as BSF — Building Schools for the Future). Well-designed external space is seen as an essential contribution in transforming the learning experience of children, not only in terms of the variety of learning methods, venues, spaces and approaches but because of its accessibility and increased relevance to the wider community as a learning, sports and recreational resource after school hours. External space is expected to be agile', capable of being used for many purposes, including access, as a social space, informal dining space, event space, or for outdoor classrooms, community gatherings, theatre, assembly points, study opportunities and as a play space. CABE (The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) has been established by the Government to promote good design practice and the built results in both architecture and landscape.

Landscape design is an all-encompassing term which is used to cover an array of practice and practitioners; from the sketched ideas of the keen amateur gardener planning a new flower bed in their gardens to multi-million pound hard and soft landscape schemes involving a multitude of land uses, such as urban streets, retail areas, residential zones, leisure facilities, community buildings, healthcare facilities, car parks, service areas, parks, play areas and formal gardens.

The keen gardener may not have formal qualifications but might have sufficient experience to create a garden. It is unlikely the gardener will be competent at designing the multi-million pound hard and soft landscapes mentioned above. Most practitioners will fall between the following two categories:

1. Garden designers with a range of qualifications: one-year National Certificates, National Diploma courses and two-to-three-year Higher National Diplomas or BA or BSc Degrees in either horticulture or garden design. Some of these students will go straight into designing gardens (as a self-employed garden designer, as part of a larger firm of garden designers or most often for design and build contractors). Others may go on to take postgraduate courses in landscape design.
2. Landscape architects will embark on a three-year BA or BSc course and then a one-year postgraduate diploma, or masters degree course, with the additional benefit of an integral year out' employment placement. Occasionally, students will enrol on a one- or two-year conversion course after completing a first degree in a different subject, such as Geography or Art. Many landscape students will then go on to take professional exams following a few more years of post-educational employment experience. This period is called the Pathway to Chartership, known widely in the profession as the abbreviation P2C. This period is to be a structured and active period of learning under the supervision and continual assessment of a fully qualified mentor with feedback from an appointed Landscape Institute (LI) Supervisor via an online system. The candidate is expected to take ownership of their learning and can progress and develop at their own pace. When candidates can demonstrate that they have developed sufficient knowledge and understanding and have met the requirements of the Pathway, they can register for the Oral Examination (held in May and November) by selected representatives of the LI. If a candidate passes, he or she is elected to become a full member of the Landscape Institute, become a Chartered Landscape Architect and may use the letters CMLI after their name. This entire process takes a minimum of seven years and yet it would only be after several more years' experience within a practice that a landscape architect would be competent to design all aspects of a multi-million pound hard and soft landscape scheme. Even then, many people specialize in one area or another: perhaps in Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment or perhaps in soft works, landscape master planning or hard landscape design for urban streets, squares and parks (often referred to as the 'public realm'). A landscape master plan may be worked on by several people at once — with different strengths and specializations.

The length of the courses of study (and the consequent student debt) is perhaps one of the reasons why enrolment on landscape architectural courses has waned in recent years and why there has been a real shortage of students leaving college as postgraduates. Of course there may be other reasons, not least the lack of promotion or awareness of the profession at school careers events.

The exciting goal for all student landscape practitioners is to be able to take ideas, whims, impressions, feelings and notions and convert them into reality in 'bricks and plants'. This is the spark which makes it worthwhile embarking on that seven-year course and which provides the enormous personal reward (not always in monetary terms) of personal creativity. Moreover, your vague dreams are immortalized in practical, tangible reality for all to see. The landscape designer is, however, working with someone else's land and someone else's money. A duty of care is owed to the client to provide a level of expertise beyond that of the layperson and to exercise this expertise in a competent, precise and thorough manner.

Designers are different from both artists and scientists in the way they think and approach problem solving. This is because design requires convergent' thought. Most academic work is based on divergent thought: pulling things apart, analysing and categorizing information into its component parts.

Convergent thinkers or designers use the information gained through the process of analysis but then put different elements together into a coherent and hopefully attractive and useful design solution. Artistic inspiration is the seed of this process but is not the main factor, as with fine art.

There are many elements to consider in landscape design, such as function, materials, aesthetics and context. Functions, such as the provision of shelter, privacy, security and even delight, must be provided for. Materials used to achieve these aims might be planting, paving bricks and slabs, stone walls, iron railings, water and so on. Aesthetics involves the principles of composition and beauty while context refers to the circumstances, situation and character of a site.

The landscape designer

Landscape design requires knowledge about many related subjects and it is helpful for designers if they have a naturally enquiring mind, like a child who always asks: why? How does that work? What causes that to happen? Designers who ask questions of others and of themselves, who are interested in related environmental and cultural subjects and disciplines, will find it easier and easier to discover solutions and inspiration. Whilst it is clear that the job involves the preparation of an attractive design layout of someone else's land and the cost implications of this design, it also requires the social skills to deal with the client, statutory authorities, technical experts, other consultants and, in the final stages, a contractor.

Landscape design involves detailed data collection and assessment; it also pays regard to the utility, durability and aesthetics of the proposed landscape. Furthermore, much attention must be given to the overall co-ordination of the design elements to create a unified whole: a whole that should fit in with, and preferably enhance, the wider landscape setting. Unlike in many other design disciplines, the landscape designer must consider the fourth dimension too: the change or evolution of the scheme through time. Therefore, it is essential to consider future management and maintenance of a new landscape to ensure that it reaches a satisfactory maturity and the ultimate vision for the site.

Designing effectively for people s many diverse needs – along with the varied contexts and scales of the sites a designer will encounter – becomes easier with the acquisition of a wide palette of knowledge over time. A useful characteristic to cultivate is a keenness to keep learning and to always ask yourself questions. A landscape designer may find it beneficial to have an appreciation and understanding of horticulture, civil engineering, history, architecture, botany, geography, geology, soil science, meteorology, aesthetics, graphics, psychology and sociology, at least at some basic level. More obviously, a designer would benefit from a working knowledge of the uses of and construction techniques for materials such as stone, water, wood, concrete, brick and metal.

Try to become sufficiently organized to free up small time slots for private learning; 15 minutes a day, every day would ensure at least one book could be read every month. Make learning your primary goal and you'll make your life and work a lot easier. The biggest fallacy in life is that learning stops when work starts. The Landscape Institute requires its members to continue their professional development (CPD) throughout their career but this should not be something that needs to be policed by any Institute – it should be the cornerstone of your daily routine. Inch by inch, everything's a 'cinch', so employ the fifteen minute rule and learning will not seem like a chore.

All landscape practitioners have a professional responsibility to act in the best interest of their client, that is to say they have a duty of care to act as the clients advisor based on a thorough assessment of the clients requirements. However, it is only Landscape Institute members who are bound by the rather more specific professional code of conduct although its rules would be sensible for any practitioner. If the designer is commissioned to provide an administrative role during a contract between client and landscape contractor, then there also exists a duty for the consultant to act impartially between these two parties.

Furthermore, it is vital that the designer gleans all the relevant information about the site, the client s needs and indeed the client s budget. This will be achieved both by direct liaison with the client and by a full site examination and assessment. Client liaison will be successful only where it is possible to build a relationship of respect, trust and goodwill. A mutual understanding of each party's obligations is essential and this informs the terms of the commission to be agreed. Such terms relate to the remuneration method, the value and when such a sum will become due. The terms will also define the scope of the services, the degree of authority to act on behalf of the client and the designer s liability.

Inevitably, with a subject so vast, there are specialist areas requiring specialist training, including the disciplines of both landscape managers (who possess a greater expertise in specifying maintenance and management practices and works) and scientists (who specialize in analysing and providing data on soils, plant and animal communities, and other ecological and environmental factors). Above all, good landscape designers know how to source the specialist information that they require quickly, accurately and efficiently. Getting on with other people and having an effective chain of contacts are great assets to a landscape designer whose work touches so many disciplines.

The characteristics that make for an easy going, people-orientated personality can sometimes be less comfortable with the need to negotiate fees and to hold firm against the more hardnosed commercial clients whose remit may be purely to minimize consultant costs. In times of recession they have more ability to push fees down, often playing one consultant off against another. Learning how to handle people (to be assertive without being aggressive or passive) is a useful starting point. There is a plethora of self-help and people management books available to ensure you have the confidence to conduct yourself assertively and confidently in an open and communicative manner.

The service provided

The landscape designer s services are very similar to those of an architect but instead of being primarily concerned with the four walls of a building and inwards, the landscape designer mostly affects all areas external to buildings (with the exception of interior landscapes). As such, the landscape design services are primarily concerned with the design, construction and management of a site, involving a change in the quality and/or usage of it.

The works proposed may include either 'hard' landscape elements (such as walls, fences, paving surfaces and street furniture) or 'soft' landscape elements (comprising trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, bulbs and grass). The different stages of the service provided are summarized briefly below and in more detail in Chapters 3—16.

Summary of stages of the designer's work

1. Receive approach from client or client s agent.
2. Investigate client requirements, scheme parameters, outline brief.
3. Quote, discuss and negotiate fee until agreement reached.
4. Appraise site: prepare detailed brief and check against fee agreement.
5. Commission or carry out topographical survey, produce base plan and evaluate constraints and opportunities.
6. Sketch ideas, make notes and formulate concepts with diagrams.
7. Prepare sketch scheme, assess preliminary costs, liaise with client and amend accordingly.
8. Work up to outline layout stage and conclude client negotiations.
9. Prepare final design drawing to presentation standard and cost estimate, confirm client agreement.
10. Commence working drawings, e.g. hard landscape plan, planting design, setting out etc.
11. Prepare a more detailed cost estimate: compare to budget with client. Seek approval to tender.
12. Prepare bills/schedules of quantities, choose form of contract, e.g. JCLI/JCT minor works.
13. Assemble tender documents and tender to an approved list of contractors.
14. Receive tenders, assess and evaluate them and report findings to client.
15. Prepare contracts for exchange between client and contractor where using a standard form of building contract (recommended). Where there is no standard form of contract (e.g. where retained contractual agreements are in place or for very simple, small-scale works) make it abundantly clear that the contractor is commissioned on the basis of your tender documentation for a fixed price. Variations should only be allowable for additional works, changes to the specification, omissions or for provisional items.
16. Arrange pre-start meeting with contractor and client and then carry out contract administration as agreed with the client according to the complexity of the contract. Some clients may want to oversee the works themselves, but it is rare that the designer cannot either add value or make savings from being involved at this stage.
17. Certify final completion and client hand-over of the site to the client.

Earning a living in a tough world

Because you are reading this book, it is likely that you will be motivated enough to fulfil a primary career goal, which might be to get a job and earn a living in the landscape industry as a landscape designer, landscape manager, contractor or nursery manager. Or perhaps your goal might simply be to improve your design skills or just to be a more competent landscape practitioner. But the key question to answer is: what makes a competent landscape practitioner?

Imagination, sensitivity to clients and users of the site and some technical knowledge are, of course, essential, combined with a thorough knowledge of the subject. Such knowledge can be learned during university, college and other training courses and a lot more from practical experience – just doing the job. Spatial awareness is an essential capability in order to ensure that spaces of appropriate scale and character will be created and good design concepts and ideas are necessary too. However, it would be a mistake to think that you cannot be a competent designer if you find yourself bereft of ideas at the beginning of a project with a large sheet of white, blank paper set out before you. This phenomenon, sometimes called white paper shock syndrome', affects everyone, but some just hide it better than others. If you sit in front of the paper for long enough you will inevitably start to think about the scheme and 'doodle', and from first doodles mighty schemes can unfold. Often the first ideas are the best and are returned to even after looking at later alternatives. Severe attacks of white paper shock syndrome are best addressed by tapping into your unconscious. A little trick to help achieve this is to familiarize yourself with the facts of the brief, the constraints and opportunities and the functional and aesthetic aspirations of the client. Then ask yourself a key empowering question: how can I synthesize ...