You have now completed you functional layout plan and taken into consideration the principles of design that I covered last week. (Check my archives for this information)
Now, you need to begin the
design layout!
Don't worry, as before, we'll take it one step at a time and look at tips to make the process easier. It would not work well to just draw any old shapes and patterns on to your design and hope for the best! You have to decide the best logical decisions to ensure that your plan will look good. This can be made easier by using tools such as geometry and grids to assist us.
The most important thing to remember is that designing your garden isn't about drawing pretty patterns. You are, after all, a designer, and not a decorator! Having said that though, there is a place for patterns in your plan as they can help to form an intrinsic part of the design. Totally confused? Patterns can create mood, direct movement, and even help to alter the perceptions of the space.
You need to decide which shapes are going to form your design and how you are going to compose. You don't need to pluck these shapes from thin air. Refer back to all of the information that you have collated so far and search for clues. If your design brief stated that the garden would be formal then this would suggest using solid shapes such as squares and rectangles. They would also need to be set out in a symmetrical pattern to emphasise the formal theme. On your functional layout plan, you have already decided where some of your shapes need to be located within the space and so use these as your guide. You may need to juggle a few shapes to permit them to sit better in your design. This is normal and shows that you are allowing the design to change and develop as your thoughts and ideas become clearer.
Not certain that your shapes and patterns look right in your plan? Not a problem. Think back to your principles of garden design: unity and harmony, scale and proportion, and balance. These principles should be applied to the process of positioning shapes and patterns. Try to relax and let your sense of imagination have a slightly higher say than sensibility. You don't have to get it right first time. Just keep experimenting until you get something you feel happy with.
Okay, so you've looked through all of your work so far and you've still no idea what direction to take your design in and indeed no idea what blimin' "shapes" to use! Take a step back from your garden design and think more about the composition of shapes in general. Get yourself some fresh paper and draw the outline to your garden on to it. Then, draw yourself some different sized shapes on separate paper and cut these out. Now, within your garden boundaries, place your shapes in different ways and see what looks good to you. This could help you to reach some decisions about your design.
Consider each shape individually and then look at how the shapes relate to each other. You will need to analyse each shape to fully understand how it can be used to most effect within your garden.
The Circle is a strong. formal and simple shape that occurs in nature. It has symbolic meanings in many religions and cultures, such as in China where it represents heaven and forms the basis of the Tai Chi symbol of Yin and Yang.
The circle is made up of a centre, a circumference, a radius and a diameter. We can also extend the radius out from the centre of the circle, beyond its circumference. A tangent can be created by placing a line outside the circle that touches the circumference and forms a right angle with the radius line. (See diagram)
To join any shapes to a circle it is important to link these new shapes with one of the lines we have identified. If you do not use these lines then the design will look unbalanced and awkward.The Square is also a formal shape. It is a man-made shape with rigid sides and axes that pass through it. It is composed of a centre, sides, axes and a diagonal. Lines from the sides and axes can be extended beyond the outline of the shape to help formulate and create adjacent shapes. The axes can be used to divide the square into smaller squares or rectangles. A rectangle can be formed by extending one side of the square.
Similar shapes are relatively easy to combine as they generally fit together fairly easily. if you want to combine different shapes, then just remember to join them using their different component lines and they should fit together in a more pleasing composition.
When combining shapes prevent yourself from placing them in such a composition that you create acute angles (less than 45*). This will be very difficult to actually landscape and will look weak . Creating acute angles normally arises when combining circles to other shapes. Whichever shapes you are combining they will need to differ in size to establish a dominant shape. If you fail to do this then the design will lack identity, be dull, and lack focus - sorry!
Circles can be combined in many different ways such as overlapping them or in concentric circles. When overlapping them it is best to make sure the centre of the overlapping circles passes through the circumference of the underlying circle. If there is too little overlap then you could be creating an acute or obtuse angle which may be difficult to deal with, and, once again, will not look right.
Have an experiment with a pair of compasses and see what you can do with circles. Try expanding the radius out of the original circle and drawing a new circumference so that you create a wedge. You can also try drawing circles with in circles and creating the appearance of a cut tree trunk.
Have fun and get to know your shapes!
Time to get a bit more technical with the whole shape thing. You can create a shape using a curvilinear design. A curvilinear design uses the the circumference of circles and ellipses to form the design. Try not to confuse this with natural and free-flowing designs, where you purely draw a shape with your hand and do not use other shapes to create it. To successfully create a curvilinear design, you will need to combine circles so that they are tangent to each other - the fewer, larger circles you use, the simpler and stronger the curvilinear design will be.
Curvilinear designs work best in informal garden settings. Take a look at the diagram. You can see how the circumferences of the circles create the curvilinear design.To combine rectangles is a fairly easy process and you can usually achieve pleasing results without much effort. They are useful for creating formal, symmetrical and asymmetrical designs. Consequently, they are used to link architecture with gardens and are often placed close to the house or building to create patios and terraces. Rectangular shapes do not work so well for informal designs.
To combine them, as with all shapes, use rectangles of different sizes. Try to keep the shapes fairly large and restrict the number used to prevent the design becoming messy and cluttered. There will need to be a hierarchy of sizes, preferably with one larger, dominant rectangle that is surrounded or overlapped by smaller ones. This theme works particularly well in long, narrow gardens.
You can develop the rectangular theme by laying then at angles to the house and creating diagonal themes. if a site is very short and small, using a rectangle at 45* to the house can can take away the emphasis from the closeness of the rear boundary to the house by directing the eye towards its longest axis.
When designing shape combinations it is important not to get too carried away - remember keep it simple.
Okay, so you've got your shapes but how do you position them into your plan? There is a method using grid-lines that can help you to position your shapes and make sure that your shapes are in proportion to the building or house.
The grid system works by taking a measurement from a feature on the house and using this dimension to create a grid square - this grid is then repeated to fill the site. The feature that you use to determine the size of the grid square should be located on your baseline or house facade so that it visually connects and relates to the garden. The theory is that the designer (you) can use this dimension to draw up a grid for use as an underlay, onto which you can then arrange the patterns and shapes that will form the design. The measurements used for the grid will have a direct relationship with the house, and resulting patterns should also therefore be in proportion to the house.
Take a look at this next diagram.
The unit of measurement for the grid square has been taken from the french windows. The shaded squares show how you can use the grid to create shapes and patterns for your design. Easy, hey?The grid-lines don't always work for every designer but have an experiment anyway and see if it works for you. You can also try scaling your grid squares up or down proportionately or, when you feel confident with the method, even rotating the grid 45* to the house.
Whether you decide to use the grid or not, try to link lines from the house or baseline to shapes in your design. This will continue to create a direct relationship with the house and the garden. If there are existing features within the garden that are to remain then these should also link to the new design in a similar way.
Once you have created some interesting shapes for your garden, experiment with them by tracing the overall outline that your shapes have made and considering how they look. It must be a shape that is possible to create in real life.
Remember, I mentioned freehand curves earlier? If you want to create a natural look to your design it is possible to draw curves and shapes freehand although it is somewhat harder. You will have difficulty reproducing your shapes and will have to use the offset method of measuring to ensure accuracy. If you create a garden using this freehand method, then you must make sure that the shapes are bold, natural and not forced. Give me geometrics any day!
When you have got to a stage where you're happy to combine your functional layout plan with your new design layout, use smaller, scaled-down, versions of your site outline and roughly sketch in your proposed design layout. By drawing these rougher sketches it will be less intimidating than drawing onto your larger plan and will hopefully allow you to be more spontaneous with your layout. Make sure that your smaller plans are still in proportion otherwise you'll end up in a right pickle when you try to draw it onto your larger plan.
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