A simply formed landscape – Orb House

Our latest residential design to be implemented is on the RAIA shortlisted building, Orb House by Bojan Simic.

A striking modernist pavilion that on first visit left me in awe and wondering how to capture it’s spirit and permeate that through the landscape. The reality was that the conceptual work came through with relative ease. Clear communication with client and architect, together with my appreciation of the buildings simple geometric form allowed me to formulate ideas quickly.

When you love something any task related to that love becomes easy. So in landscape design, when you love the space that you are designing the ideas flow. They not only flow, they rarely need to undertake a major rework as the Genius loci is automatically connected to. This was certainly the case with Orb House.

It may be a little heavy under foot w.r.t. environmental impact, however you cannot deny the bold form, driven by a solid philosophical argument.

The landscape is a work in progress as there is a view that it’s impact on the planet needs to be offset by an increase in plant material (greenroof) and sustainable technologies. It’s a bit like trying to part-extract a pin that was hit with a sledgehammer.

Orb House Landscape

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To tweet or to blog, or both :-)

Having started to play with Twitter, I am now looking at efficient ways to work with them both. Blogging is great when there are more than a few characters in your head and Twitter is that great ‘at the moment’ tool for sharing stuff you have just discovered or simply brain dumping.

I am liking them both and will be playing with ways one can play of the other. It’s all old school for some, but for me it is like a brand new baby!

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Moving a Blog

Warning to anyone changing web host providers. If you have a blog, seek help!

This warning comes from my recent experience with changing providers. I thought it would be a fairly straightforward exercise having done it before however, when you have a blog, you have a database and you have to deal with SQL.

SQwhat? you may ask. Dont ask, just get help :-0. Many thanks to Jonathan at MDWebhosting who got me up and running. I am sure that the work he did was out of scope from his job requirements.

What you read now is thanks to him.

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Garden Shows – A missed oppertunity

Garden Shows – A Missed Opportunity
With MIFGS dead and buried and winners announced at Chelsea, I started to think about the show gardens that are built and what they are for.
When I first presented at MIFGS my focus was not about winning a medal (which, at the time I thought I had bugger all chance of doing) but about simply about presenting a good design. At a garden show you get a great opportunity to take the design brief and push boundaries, trying things only the most adventurous client would allow you to do. There is a high degree of risk when taking this approach as you never really have any true idea of what you are going to get until it is sitting in front of you as a completed garden.
For me it is the public coming through the gate that are important, they are your  judge and jury and potential clients! The public will always be appreciative of anything that is built, however it is the level of appreciation that makes the difference.
The goalposts have changed over the years when presenting show gardens. It’s all about winning medals. You can understand this as with the increase in sponsorship dollars. In many cases there is an expectation by the sponsors that there will be a medal, and if you dont get a medal they might not be back.
Success can be measured in other ways; ongoing work results in increased patronage for your suppliers and contractors must be important. Isn’t that what the sponsors want? More money in the bank?
Many think that medals translate into increased work. This simply isn’t always the case. I am living proof this, as are many other designers. If it did translate then designers would be cueing up at the shows and I can tell you they are not.
All this being said, my mind keeps returning to the thought that show gardens we see now (in the majority of cases) are missed opportunities. Opportunities to showcase great design.
Dont get me wrong, the gardens you see are very nice, however they are not exactly statements of good design or pushing any boundaries.
So what are the medals for??
It all seems to come down to ego judges and entrants alike, change the judging criteria and get a better competition with real designers.

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Trying to work out how to blog on a phone

If you see a photo that is great. Just working things out. If you are curious I took a snap of my telly showing The Young Ones

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MIFGS 2010 – Something that has made it all worthwhile.

There were many highs and lows during the whole process. One high that washed away any pain that came with the build was a letter sent to me from a visually impaired lady who visited the garden. Here it is.

My name is (name withheld) and I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful day I had on Saturday (27.3.10) when I attended the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

As a keen gardener I have always been a visitor to the show, but yesterday was a totally new experience for which I am extremely grateful, especially as I have been vision impaired for last 6 years.

What a wonderful journey your exhibition garden took me on. With the help of a sighted guide, I stepped from the crowd onto garden mulch, which immediately transported me into a bush setting. The next few steps I visited a herb garden with all its wonderful aromas. The rustling of the corn took me to farm fields, then it was a the crunch underfoot and a slight gradient then a surface which was smooth, hard, cold with water trickling. Memories of being in a cave when I was younger and sighted came flooding back.  My mind pictured a cave with depths below of crystal clear water and limestone formations of stalagmites and stalactites. The noise of the crowd seems to disappear behind a wall of soft greenery. I almost did not want to leave.

Again I just wanted to thank you for an exceptional experience, gardens should be experienced not just admired.

To me, and I am sure others like me, this garden was a gold medal effort.

Kind regards and thanks,

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MIFGS 2010 – Day 17 (goodbye)

Well thats it for this year!

I popped in this morning with a broom to dust things off and say goodbye. Time for some sleep.

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MIFGS 2010 – Day Fifteen (packup)

We have three days to get out and it is all go! This started straight after the show with plants coming out and trucked out that night.

In the morning the lads were back and the demolition began. They have found this to be a weird experience, with something being created to quickly with their own hands being torn apart straight after.

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MIFGS 2010 – Day Fourteen (last day of the show)

Last show day is ‘family day’ and the families were certainly all out in force.

Question after question after question were answered as best as I could. The old legs were failing so I popped myself on the low garden wall. here I was an easy target for the visitors :-) .

The gals from GDV were under the pump too.

By the end all the show bags were gone and we had collected thousands of names who had entered their competition, with me as first prize!!!

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MIFGS 2010 – Day Thirteen

BIG Saturday today. It was very busy, more family and friends through and a couple of blind people who were gave me some great feedback.

We did well on Friday nights Better Homes and Gardens show. Proud to say my mug was the only non independant bod to get on the screen. Good for me and good for Guide Dogs Victoria. When I work out how to get it of TiVo that I bought last night to record the show I will pop it up and let you know.

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