Asian influence

2019/6.2, June 19 — Botanical Bravura, Inventing an Illusion, Stylish Steps and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS June 19, 2019 www.watershapes.com GARDEN ENCHANTMENT…
Suburban Spaces
You really can find opportunities in unexpected places, insists Mehrnoosh, a Los Angeles architect and designer who enjoys making refined aesthetic statements in previously plain suburban environments. To illustrate her point, she takes us to a project in a modest neighborhood to define how simple architectural and landscape elements – and water – can bring elegance and tranquility to otherwise overlooked and underappreciated spaces.
Illustrating Feng Shui
This column must be prefaced with the thought that, for a great many of our clients, perception is reality. That's something I hold onto whenever I get involved in trying to understand and use feng shui, the ancient Chinese method for arranging harmonious, balanced spaces.  I am far from a devotee of the art (or science, as some would have it), but I'm aware that some of my clients know a thing or two about it - and that knowing something myself is essential to working with them successfully or at all. There are literally hundreds of books about feng shui.  Of the half dozen I've read, none is better suited to the needs of the watershaper than The Complete Illustrated Guide to Feng Shui for Gardens by Lillian Too (Element, 1999). There are a couple of key points that make Too's perspective on feng shui so useful:  First, she