8 Common Mistakes People Make When Specifying Paving, and How to Avoid Them

In this article, we go into the eight most common mistakes people make when specifying paving and offer creative ways to avoid them. Have you ever wondered how you know where to go in the park? We’re not talking about the well-known places where you can walk with your eyes shut. We want to direct your attention to the cases in which you don’t know which way to go, but somehow find the right direction. Our challenge to you is this: How do you do that? Is it because of your sixth sense? Or is it because the path network is designed in a logical way? Alleys, platforms, and their pavements are fundamental elements of composition in landscape architecture. Their design is the skeleton of the overall landscape and serves as a basis that has a crucial effect on the final result. Designing your pa...Read More

10 Mediterranean plants you should never use in your design, and some that you should. Landscape design is about satisfying human needs. It is an intervention that refers and adapts to human presence. Planting always plays an important role in the whole scheme. However, there are plants that exist harmoniously in nature, but struggle to become functional in a man-made landscape. This article focuses on those less useful plants in landscape design. It also intends to provide a set of parameters we should consider before choosing plants for a design scheme. The trees and plants mentioned below are mostly found in the Mediterranean Landscape. However, there are also many other plants from other climates which share similar characteristics, making them difficult to use in landscape design. The...Read More

As a landscape architect I love the aspects of modernist architecture that allow a house to embrace and co-exist with the garden around it. One feature of a house that can instantly achieve this is a courtyard. The room without a ceiling. A courtyard is a landscaped private area within or next to the house that integrates with the living and private spaces of the building.  Australian landscape architect Ellis Stones described courtyards as ‘a room without a ceiling’ and in this way he defined the essential link between these spaces and the architecture of a house. In Robin Boyd’s Walsh Street (Melbourne, Australia) the courtyard is the central feature of the architecture and while providing a break between the separated parent’s and children’s wings it is also the main p...Read More

Stadtpark Papenburg, by RMP Landschaftsarchitekten, Papenburg, Germany. Have you asked yourself what a garden show is or what the transformative effects of it are? Since becoming popular in Germany and Austria in the 1980s, garden shows have aimed to improve the quality of life and the urban climate of cities. They also work toward regional-political development objectives. Regional garden shows are developed on disadvantaged sites, transforming them into attractive and pleasant locations. RMP Landscape Architects have extended the benefits and advantages of a regional garden show into a functional adaptation to meet the current requirements of the city park in Papenburg, Germany. Embedded in a larger context of city development, the implemented regional garden show in Stadtpark Papenburg ...Read More

Annenberg Center for Information, Science, and Technology, by OJB, in Pasadena, California. There is a source of pride for researchers and students of the prestigious California Institute of Technology. They are talented, hardworking and lead advances in their fields of investigation, but for those who are placed in Annenberg Center for Information, Science and Technology, there is an additional source of pride. Their daily life occurs in an environment which applies sustainable principles so successfully that the building in which they work has even gotten a gold certification from LEED due to its water and energy efficiency. However, it has always been the garden in front of the building which delighted the community of academics. Annenberg Center As a design requirement of the brief, th...Read More

Royal Neighbour, by ADEPT and Mandawork, in Stockholm, Sweden. One might say that the first Global Environmental Conference was not Rio+20 in 1992, but The United Nations Conference on The Human Environment (UNCHE), which took place in 1972 in Stockholm. Although some people may disagree with this affirmation, there is no doubt that the UNCHE, whose main goal was to reduce human impact on the environment, was the first attempt at making society aware of the potential negative consequences of our existing development model on our living and to preserve the environment for coming generations. Since then, the city of Stockholm has focused on sustainable development alternatives and is still trying to maintain this reputation. Nowadays, according to the City of Stockholm, the Environment Progr...Read More

Wadi Al Azeiba, by Atelier Jacqueline Osty & associés, in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Let’s be honest: You know you’ve walked past a vacant or rundown lot at some point in time. Maybe it was near your home, in your neighborhood, or by your school or workplace, but we have all seen a piece of land that is unkempt, neglected, or left for nature to take care of. Designed by Atelier Jacqueline Osty & associés, the Wadi Al Azeiba project is an interesting take on how to better utilize spaces we may otherwise find unappealing or vacant of design promise. A wadi, in some Arabic-speaking countries, is a term used to describe a gateway for water during storm events, not unlike a valley or ravine. The wadi channels water when during storms, but otherwise stays completely dry outside of the ra...Read More

Shrewsbury International School “Play Field” for Kindergarten Children, by Shma Designs, in Bangkok, Thailand. Shrewsbury “Play Field” is a shining example of a sensory-stimulating environment for kindergarten children. Going beyond the typical all-in-one play equipment — which suggests limitations for the growth of a child — Shma has created an all-encompassing play area where young children are able to experiment, explore, observe, and manipulate their surroundings. So, just how exactly is this executed? Multi-sensory play makes up a big part of the design. Stop and think about what you are doing right now or what you were doing a minute ago. Can you identify the senses you used that allowed you to gain an understanding or perform a function? Through this short contemplation,...Read More

Zamet Centre, by 3LHD, in  B. Vidas Street, Zamet, Rijeka, Croatia. Have you ever played handball? I did, but only as a child. So when I discovered that the project I am writing about played host to a handball championship, I was a bit surprised. I wondered, is handball the Croatian national sport? And then my mind went to the Olympic games and the large number of buildings that lose their sense after the event for which they were built is done, and I started to become distressed. But the more I read about Croatia’s Zamet Centre, the more astonished I became. When architecture speaks for itself and when it works — as it does in this case — it integrates into the environment in a very sharp way, satisfying many demands at once with a strategic multi-functionality. But let’s star...Read More

Are renderings all they are cracked up to be or do they just cover the cracks? We explore renderings and the different mediums used to help us draw our conclusion. The field of landscape architecture uses a diverse mix of tools to create, design, and communicate ideas. We solve problems through design and make spaces better for the people who inhabit them. The design and construction of a project is made possible through the help of computer software and hand drawing or drafting. Photoshop perspectives, plans and sections, 3-D models, and hand drawings all help communicate a design to the public, the client, or the contractor. However, this does bring up an interesting issue: Are renderings true to the design and its construction? We make pretty pictures, but are some of them doing more ha...Read More