Transcript Design Principles

Design Principles
Objectives
• Explain landscape design business concepts.
• Create a functional and aesthetically pleasing landscape plan.
• Demonstrate landscape plant installation and maintenance
practices.
• Install a landscape area based on a landscape design.
Balance
• The same mass of plants on one side compared to the other.
• Symmetry
• asymmetry
Proportion
• The size of an object is not too big or too small compared to
another object.
• Too large of a tree for example, will make a house look small.
Proportion
• The size of an object is not too big or too small compared to
another object.
• Too small of a tree for example, will make a house look big.
Proportion cont
• Width to height ratio for yard space and hedges/ borders is 3
to 1.
• The height of a border or hedge depends on the width of the
space next to it.
• In order to be comfortable and not feel like you are trapped in
a prison, the height of the hedge should be no more than 1/3
the width of the space next to it.
Line
• The line formed by the silhouette of a row of plants such as
you would see in a border, or foundation planting.
Choppy or Flat
Rhythm
• A repeated pattern of plants.
Simplicity
• Plants are massed together in bunches usually in odd numbers
(3, 5, 7 etc) and the number of different types of plants are
kept to a minimum to avoid it looking busy.
Unity
• All the parts of the property (outdoor rooms) work together.
They feel connected and not out of place.
Contrasts and Similaritiesin color and texture
• Color schemes are important, if you don’t have an eye for
mixing colors, there are a few never fail combinations that are
pleasing to the eye.
• Monochrome- Variations of one color…many shades of blue
for example.
• White- a white garden is visible both day and night.
• All American- Red white and blue always looks good together.
• Try to avoid too many colors at once.
• Try to divide the color scheme unevenly…most, some, least.
• Texture- Mix up the texture of the plants and other garden
objects as well, large leaf/small leaf; fine leaves/ rough
leaves; soft/rough; fuzzy/glossy; narrowleaf
evergreen/broadleaf evergreen.
Most, Some, Least principle
• Most: gets the neutral color- green, silver, grey, white
• Some: Intermediate
• Least: brightest color: red, yellow
Plant Use
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Plants have many practical purposes other than to look nice.
Windbreak
Privacy screens
Hedges
Borders/Living fences
Shade tree
Line walkways
Compromise
• Sometimes we have to break some of the design principles to
effectively use plants for a specific purpose.
Windbreaks
• In this area cold winter winds arrive from the northwest.
These winds steal heat from the house by a process called
convective cooling.
• Tall evergreens are used in the NW corner of the property in
order to break up the wind and push it upwards and over the
house.
wind
Privacy Screen
• Sometimes it is necessary to make a hedge or border a little
higher, and out of proportion to the width of the space
between it and the house in order to block a view (people
looking in, or some kind of eyesore you choose not to look at).
Shade Trees
• Shade trees should be located on the southwest,
or South and West side of a house, because this
is when it throws shade on the house during the
hottest part of the day (mid day – evening).
• Appropriate trees have a lollipop shape so they
can be planted really close to the house, without
blocking the view out lower windows and still
allow shade to be thrown over some of the roof
and sides of the house.
• Trees are actually planted within 12 feet of the
house, such as larger maples, oaks,
honeylocusts, ash trees.
Borders –
of outdoor rooms, walkways, property lines
• Some plants are appropriate to use as a border,
some are not.
• If plants are used to line walkways they should
be slow growing, and not outgrow the area and
not encroach the walkway as it matures. Avoid
plants with spines and thorns.
• The boundaries of outdoor rooms may be
marked by plants, instead of walls or fences.
They do not have to be big, just demonstrating
that one area is separated from the next area.
Landscape plans
PROJECT TIME
• You are to take an assignment, turn it into a landscape plan,
then build your landscape plan into a 3D model.
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House
Pool
Flower bed
Basketball court
4 evergreen trees
Evergreen shrubs for privacy
Patio
• Due at the end of the quarter (2 weeks!!). Use any material
you’d like.
• 70 points possible (35 for design, 35 for model)