As a designer, it is important that my clients develop a long lasting and loving relationship with their new garden. Formulating a brief is a lot like filling out a questionnaire on a dating website
I have seen many show gardens over the course of my career, and this is the first time a garden has captured the essence of good design. Good design is not about creating a fantasy, good design is about working with what already exists to make it better. For five days, 'Legacies' made Carlton Garden better.
I recently read an article about the UK banning the sale of fake designer furniture. The author of the article made the point that Australians often don't know the difference between furniture that has been designed and designer knock-offs. The result is a proliferation of furniture stores selling knock-offs at a fraction of the price of the real thing and, after the UK's stand, Australia leaves itself open to be a dumping ground of poor quality, "designer look" furniture.
Time and time again I have clients asking me why landscape designers "hate lawn."
Well, hate may be a little harsh, but let me put it another way; why to clients love lawn? From a design point of view, the lawn is just another type of paving, a way of transitioning from one area to another.
Designers are creatures of intrinsic value. The role of any designer is to make improvements that add value to an object, whether it be a watch, car component or a garden. The added value is often not directly attributed to dollars, but can only be measured in more subtle ways, like performance, durability, usability, sustainability and, the most subtle of all, liveability.
I recently had the opportunity to meet Chelly and Peter Grey, two Castlemaine artists. The couple began their artistic life as ceramicists, however they soon found a love for wire, tin and rusty metal. Over the past 20 years their work has been seen on TV, in various lifestyle magazines including Vogue Living and Marie Claire and they have exhibited at local galleries as well as the Guggenheim in New York.
I recently had the opportunity to visit three gardens on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsular. Located less than an hour south of Melbourne, the peninsular is an eclectic mix of opulent holiday homes, beach shacks and gastro pubs.