Landscape Architecture
Landscape Designer Christchurch
Rural & Country
We design both new gardens and revamp and add impact to existing ones
Innovative design for the discerning
We at David Taylor Landscape Architecture est.1978 are extremely passionate and get very excited when we are involved in the planning process any project... there are always many new, stimulating and refreshing things emerging in our industry, both home grown and globally, trends and design ideas are ever changing and evolving, it's exciting and continually provides a platform for interesting design.
At David Taylor Landscape Architecture we understand the essential key design components:
- Spatial awareness
- Proportion
- Scale
- Shape
- Balance
To successfully design in any discipline it is important to understand these components. It's primarily about successfully balancing these components.
Remember back to a time when you felt something just didn't look or feel right. You may not have grasped what was actually wrong but you sensed it wasn't right! That was probably because the components weren't aligned or balanced well or correctly.
This is often where there's significant disparity between something that's been done by the unskilled or untrained and that of the professional you pay for what you get.
Design plans are a fantastic way to incorporate all the things you want and one day will be able to afford. We at David Taylor Landscape Architecture plan your desired garden with the future in mind. Your plan can be implemented as your time and funds permit. If you have the resources you can completed the entire garden, if however you want to work within a series of budgets that fantastic, because you simply cost out from the plan what you can afford to completed at any one time, and simply progress as time and funds are available.
The main thing is that when the landscaping has been completed you derive all the financial and personal benefits that a professionally designed garden provides.
At David Taylor Landscape Architecture we plan and design outdoor spaces, environments and gardens for farms, and lifestyle blocks. Never before has there been such awareness, emphasis and importance placed on achieving a successful integration between the interior and exterior architectural components of the home whilst ensuring the created landscape fits with the environment beyond. Landscaping is the thing that fuses, melds and anchors the built structure of your house/home with that of the land.
Rural design is an interesting area to work in; it has a unique criterion given that many of the works in the rural environs are of larger scale to that of urban spaces. At David Taylor Landscape Architecture we believe design is more about illusion than design itself.
When working and creating within larger spaces it's important to think of the space as being generous and spacious not big and clumsy especially the areas sited closer to the home, such as the patio or courtyard and living areas. These spaces if worked well provide a great opportunity for the inhabitants to feel cosy and comfortable, not too open and ungainly and lacking intimacy and cosiness which will occur if the proportion and scale of an area is too large.
For example you're looking out from your house across the garden, it's a huge space, often without definition, you know in reality that it's a big awkward space.
We at David Taylor Landscape Architecture see these as a spaces having amazing potential. By semi dividing the one large space into smaller areas and skilfully altering the scale and proportions, you can create the feeling of intimacy.
We can further reinforce this by the careful selection of the materials we choose. Lighter coloured and larger paving creates to feeling of spaciousness, true also if you want to make an area feel smaller you can do the opposite.
By combining and contrasting rough and smooth textures in the materials such as fencing, incorporating a vista beyond to create length to an area. Choosing tall thin plants with blending or muted colours creates the illusion of distance, ones with brighter colour and bolder leaves make us believe they are close to us, by skilfully combining and contrasting these elements we distort and confuse our sense of reality tricking them into believing something exists when in reality it doesn't.
Having said this it is extremely crucial not to simply make a series of small out of proportioned and scale that doesn’t fit well with the larger environment.
We can help:
With the positioning of your new house and any amenity and ancillary buildings. Help with proportioning the correct amount of space for the house block and garden area, determining the position and shape of driveway and parking areas. Advise on fencing/walls etc for shelter, division, containment and privacy.
Swimming pool, spa, tennis court positioning, patios and courtyards etc.
Special features e.g. water features ponds shade and overhead structures, raised and walled gardens and ornamentation e.g. pots sculptures garden seats and benches Outdoor fires and barbeques etc.
Plants selection:
Arranged for shelter and ornamental attribute, height, colour, texture and suitability to your specific geographic location and site.
We at David Taylor Landscape Architecture have many years of experience working within the rural market to ensure the designs and outdoor spaces and environments we create the best that both worlds comfy and cosy yet spacious and provide you with all the benefits of having the space to enjoy your rural lifestyle.
Another thing which is very important with larger gardens is to ensure the garden is not too large and of high maintenance, Maybe you are having trouble with or wanting to sell a property and require help; give you ideas on how to improve the presentation and marketability of a property. We at David Taylor Landscape Architecture have solid expertise in this area.
We at David Taylor Landscape Architecture have the expertise to create a garden which is truly stunning yet is very easy to maintain.
I'm sure sometime in the past you can recall thinking I don't want to spend the money to employ a professional, only to find out that you should have. Hind sight is a wonderful thing as the saying goes.
Often the price of something will influence or dictate our decisions, however I can’t stress strongly enough! If funds are limited what ever you do don't penny pinch on Investing in professional design, especially when it's your house, home, or any other real-estate is on the line, presentation is paramount when investing or selling real-estate.
If a design professional is working with/for you in a genuine professional capacity, the fees charged or quoted will be money well invested, often saving you many thousands of dollars over and above the fees charged.
The problem for most of us is we lock on to an idea, have tunnel vision and can't see past what we are focussed on.
More times than I care to remember, we at David Taylor Landscape Architecture have saved clients thousands of dollars on their landscaping by providing alternative ideas which costs much less than the idea they've been focussed on, thus the fees charged have been well and truly paid for plus some!... Let alone how David Taylor Landscape Architecture can create improvement and add tremendous value to your property.
Investing in professional design is very important, especially when there is real-estate involved.
When a design professional is working with/for you, the fees charged or quoted will be money well invested, often saving you many thousands of dollars over and above the fees charged.
David Taylor Landscape Architecture can create improvement and add tremendous value to most real-estate. Landscaping is a creative investment tool and is a tax deductible cost