Thursday, April 28, 2011

Roughing Things In

As we move towards resolving the final designs for The Main Courtyard, an old landscaping technique is proving useful. We are roughly sketching in the "bones" of the design with something that, whilst not the finished thing, is close enough to give an idea of how this will eventually work.  It is quick, it is inexpensive and it can save a fortune by avoiding costly stuff-ups later.

Capability Brown used rods, blocks, sticks, stones and a small army of assistants to work out his grand designs, creating a style which defined the eighteenth century landscape garden and continues to influence designers to this day. That was in a galaxy far, far away and long, long ago but the principle of "roughing it in" remains useful.

Here we have set up an approximation of the walls for the future living room, which adjoins The Main Courtyard.  These low Besser block "walls", thrown together very simply in under an hour, show how the future doors from the living area will frame the "pond", currently marked by a pile of garden clippings,  that will one day sit at the axial centre of The Main Courtyard.  This framing creates a well resolved vista across to the plane tree which will be pollarded into the classic candelabra formThe whole thing will need tweaking of course, but in essence, it is looking workable.  Or, as Mr Brown would have said,   "It has capability".     

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