Landscape Design - Design Approach

Design Approach

Factors in designing include objective qualities; such as the climate and microclimates; topography and orientation, site drainage and groundwater recharge; municipal and resource building codes, soils and irrigation, human and vehicular access and circulation, recreational amenities (i.e.: sports and water), furnishings and lighting, native plant habitat botany when present, property safety and security, construction detailing, and other measurable considerations. Factors in designing also include subjective qualities such as: genius loci (the special site qualities to emphasize); client's needs and preferences; desirable plants and elements to retain on site, modify, or replace, and available to use as borrowed scenery from beyond; artistic composition from perspectives of both looking upon and being in the *gardens; spatial development and definition; plant palettes in designed layouts, and artistic focal points for enjoyment. There are innumerable other design factors and considerations brought to the complex process of designing a garden that is beautiful, well functioning, and thrives over time. The up and coming practice of online landscape design allows professional landscapers to remotely design and plan sites through manipulation of two-dimensional images without ever physically visiting the location. Due to the frequent lack of non-visual, supplementary data such as soil assessments and pH tests, online landscaping necessarily must focus on incorporating only plants which are tolerant across many diverse soil conditions.