Nimis: The Land Art that Spawned a New Nation

This week’s Sketchy Saturday top 10. Welcome to this week’s edition of Sketchy Saturday; the sketches have been pouring in, and the talent just never seems to stop, it is a joy to see so many creative, artistic and active people out there making use of their ability to excite, connect and inspire people into observing their environment in a beautiful way. Clearly not every entry that gets sent to us will get published in the Sketchy Saturday top 10, but this does not mean you were not close to being featured, so please keep on sketching and sending in your awesome work, we love it all. Did we pick the right sketch for top spot, you decide! 10. by Kelly Hartholt, second year ‘Landscape Design’ student from The Netherlands. “I’m currently designing a country estate at...Read More

Parc du Mont Evrin (Mont Evrin Park) in France, designed by Urbicus. Designing a rural landscape can be a hard task. How does one purposefully design a vast area and make it look like it has always been there? How does one create a space that doesn’t make visitors feel like all of their movements are anticipated? Parc du Mont Evrin (Mont Evrin Park) in France, designed by Urbicus, might be the perfect example of how to make the unnatural feel natural. What made the task for Urbicus a little easier was the fact that the designers started with land that was formerly agricultural. Since the landscape had been natural for a long time, it was only fitting to restore the countryside environment while renewing the neighborhood. The park’s rural environment features prairies, hedgerows, smal...Read More

The Delta District Innovation in Water Management, Vinge, Denmark, by SLA  The creative mind sees opportunity where most can only see difficulty – this is the beauty of our profession as (landscape) architects. We all are aware of the climate change the planet is facing, but how can we overcome the challenges imposed by it and still provide better urban environments? Landscape architects from SLA prove that this is indeed possible with the beautiful project The Delta District in Denmark, which skillfully deals with local issues – such as flooding – and improves the quality of life of the residents. The Delta District and the City of Vinge The Delta District is the first stage of a larger project: Vinge. Vinge is a new sustainable city (currently in development) located in the municipality ...Read More

Stylish Private Outdoor Design by Red Rock Contractors and Red Rock Pools & Spas. A blank slate is viewed by designers as an open canvas, a place of unrealized dreams, and an opportunity to let those dreams become a reality. And a blank slate is exactly what Rick Chafey and Brett Blauvelt of Red Rock Pool & Spa and Red Rock Contractors found when they walked onto the property in Gilbert, Arizona, and it excited them. On their initial visit, according to Chafey and Blauvelt, “nothing about the site was extraordinary, it was just a plain Jane home with an average pool on a five-acre lot … hardly the kind of place you’d find a multimillion dollar custom estate home.” It soon became clear that they were about to take on a complete recreation, not only of the home but also of the entire...Read More

Lotus Lake Park by Integrated Planning and Design Inc. Historically, China has had a somewhat less than stellar reputation for living conditions, particularly in cities where rapid growth and urbanization has occurred. However, after many decades of overcrowding, pollution, and virtually non-existent green space in cities, China has managed to become a world leader in environmental design and planning. Today, China is a cultural center for technology and innovation, and the field of landscape architecture is no exception. In fact, China was recognized as the country experiencing the most growth in landscape architecture in our article 5 Countries Where Landscape Architecture is Booming. Sudden growth in sustainable urban design? Growing concerns over public health and environmental sustain...Read More

The Lyon River Bank by IN SITU Architectes Paysagistes. In Lyon, France, the east bank, often referred to as the left bank, of the river has undergone a transformation that has taken the former ports from a riverside car park, to a varied public space that will facilitate relaxation and socialising and encourage both city dwellers and wider Lyon residents to use sustainable transport options. The 10ha site covers a stretch along the river of approximately 5km. The ‘Berges de Rhône’ (Banks of the Rhône) development was a project undertaken by the local authority who launched an architecture competition with the assistance of the Greater Lyon Open Spaces Department (Grand Lyon) and its project-management team. Following this consultation, a team comprising landscape architects from IN SITU A...Read More

With so much to take in on a single site visit, we thought these 6 tricks might help make your job just that bit easier. Visiting a new place can be an amazing experience. But sometimes circumstances – like a change in the weather – can put a dampener on even the most positive visitor’s enthusiasm. Here we offer a variety of useful tricks for being prepared and some fresh ideas for overcoming any obstacles. All the tips in this guide are easy to use, from simple ways to predict the weather to an interesting method to keep yourself oriented. 6. Getting interesting effects for your photos Do you take a lot of photos but think that they could show more? Sometimes getting the most expressive images is all in the way you look at things. Interposing something like vegetation between the focus of...Read More

Sustainability is the buzzword that’s making the world a better place! You have probably realized that the way we manage our resources is gaining more space in the media and transforming our means of production and development. On the other hand, you may also have bought some products being advertised as sustainable and, later, discovered that certain stages of their production were contrary to this principle. You may wonder if sustainability is just another marketing ploy or whether it is being seriously practiced. Since landscape architecture harmonizes the relationship between nature and built space, you should also be looking for a response within this field to see if it is worth using sustainable methods to produce your space to live and work. So, to better understand how indivi...Read More

Bridal Veil designed by architects Louis Sicard and Emil Yusta. Have you ever felt like you were in limbo between one world and another? A walk through the Bridal Veil, built around and through the Rossignolet Waterfall in central France, might make you feel that way. The installation, designed by architects Louis Sicard and Emil Yusta, is simple, elegant, and revolutionary, regulating the flow of the waterfall so that water drips in a cascade from innumerable loci, creating illusion and mystery within the natural setting. This splendid design welcomes visitors into nature’s realm, encouraging them to become one with the water falling from above. Sicard has created a pattern that is both elegant and efficient, eco friendly and conservative. It’s time for you to pass your face through the B...Read More

The Ravelijn floating pedestrian bridge, by RO&AD. The Ravelijn Bridge, designed by RO&AD, is an 80-meter long pedestrian bridge in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. The primary function of the bridge is to connect the mainland city to a fortress, which is surrounded by a moat. The Ravelijn is currently used for small public and private events and stands as a time capsule to the beginning of the 18th century. The island fortress was once only accessible via boat. All of the materials used to build the fort had to be paddled across the moat by workers. Paddleboats were also used to transport visitors to and from the fortress. When in a paddleboat, visitors traveled a somewhat meandering path through the water. With this historic image in mind, the designers created a pedestrian bridg...Read More

What is permaculture? In the most simple definition, it is the combination of the words permanent and agriculture, which also reveals its meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary defines permaculture as “the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient,” but this definition is a little vague. Shouldn’t all agricultural ecosystems be sustainable and self-sufficient? Not necessarily, and the practice of permaculture helps to achieve this. The word permaculture was originally coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid-1970s when they were looking for a way to describe a new approach to design. Their design principles, according to Holmgren, included an “integrated, evolving system of perennial or self-perpetuating plant and animal species usef...Read More