Colours, shapes and textures in landscape designs

      What makes a great landscape design? Looking back at the ancient Babylonian times when the garden of Eden was considered a miracle masterpiece, it astonished through abundance of vegetation and the sense of luxury. The success of any well crafted landscape depends on the complementarity of the materials used to compose it. Designing for outdoor spaces is very similar in a way with interior design, especially in the case of small scale designs. Setting up a general structure of the design, outlining the activities and the final touches. The texture, colour and shape of the plants are essential to defining the general and particular feeling of the landscape.

Contrast geometrical gardens vs. free form gardens

    Plants can be abstracted forms of simple geometric objects such as cone, sphere, parallelepiped, cube, like architecture ensembles. The best example of using plant in abstracted geometric manner are the classical French gardens, the plants are pruned to shapes familiar and easy to control, in order to create outdoor spaces resemble the interior built spaces. A classic example is provided by the gardens of Versailles, but there are also examples of modernist gardens using both "shaping" natural plant plants and geometrical figures to create outdoor spaces.

    The natural colours are the most attractive to the human eye, so elements such as wood, stone and water, placed in building spaces, gives an image that invites the observer to reflect and relax. And the nuances of these elements seem to be warm, bright or feel that transmits positive energy. On the other hand plants are provided with their individual colour palettes, which change throughout the year. Landscape architect scenography created by combining these shades  in harmony and contrast, depending on the season. An example of this would be to bring together a tree with green leaves on a tree with bright green and reddish leaves. The Red-green contrast is among the commonest met in the plant world. Some plants that pass through the transition from one season to another incorporates this contrast (below right Liquidambar styraciflua leaves). But also there are other contrasting colours pallets combinations inspired by nature(seen below).

Contrast green-red

Contrast blue-yellow

Contrast orange-purple:

    Texture refers both to the patterns of hard elements (pavements, materials and furniture used) and the soft (vegetation) in design, but also to the plant's  foliage and trunk texture, that enables the artist to play with the light.

    The leaf size of the plant can determine the it's overall appearance, so we can say that a shrub is more "rough", "smooth" or "soft" depending on how smooth or rough is the overall image. The more its leaves are thinner, the appearance is finer, and as the leaf is wider, so the image will be more harsh. Another aspect worth mentioning is the density of the foliage.

Depending on the texture of the vegetation the artist can create playful scenes of the use of light in the garden. Like the use of materials in interior design, such as curtains, if the material is more opaque, the light will penetrate less or not at all in that room, and if a more transparent material is used with a certain model or pattern, the space will then be more lit, depending on the intents of  the designer/ user of the space.

Difference between an walnut tree dark shade

and an transparent group of birches, with abundance light

    All these aspects of vegetation characteristics must be correlated and adapted to the conditions in which are placed to create harmonious landscapes. Why? Because we need nature in all shapes, colours and textures, architecturally designed and orchestrated.





Article in Romanian: spatiulconstruit.ro


Sources: http://www.pariscotejardin.fr/2012/04/design-cote-jardin-buis-et-bouleaux/, http://gardenunit.com/garden-design/shots-of-amazing-gardens/, http://gossipinthegarden.com/garden-designers-roundtable-texture-in-the-garden/, www.landezine.com, www.hdwyn.com, http://garden-photos-com.photoshelter.com/gallery/Blue-Flowers-Plants-Stock-Photos/G0000mwORcfAukJ8, http://topwalls.net/blue-and-yellow-grass-flowers/, http://climatekids.nasa.gov/butterfly-garden/, http://www.cakechooser.com/pansies-and-violets/, http://www.newgardentools.net/creative-water-gardens-that-will-inspire-you/, http://slowly--surely.blogspot.ro/,  http://www.rgbstock.com/bigphoto/mGgzg2o/Plant+patterns, http://filesite.org/walnut-tree-4/, www.kokodeko.allshops.ro.