design inspiration
The cliché is true; to know where you're going you've got to know where you've been. Like all professions, watershaping has a rich history of innovation and groundbreaking achievements. Unlike other more heralded fields, however, there is no watershaping hall of fame - but if there were, you'd find many an inductee covered in these pages. Most every field of human endeavor has its
'My daughter and I just returned from our annual trip to visit family in Connecticut and used the occasion this time to travel all over the northeast,' wrote Stephanie Rose in opening her Natural Companions column for November 2004. 'I'm never disappointed by the beauty I find in that part of the country.' 'What I find most beneficial in travel
'Some people seem to believe that designing is all about reinventing the wheel every time they go to work on a new project or need to create a new detail of some kind. Truth is, however, that most great design ideas and details are derivative of things that
For most of my life, I've been lucky to live within easy driving distance of a bunch of great national parks. Yosemite, Sequoia, Joshua Tree - the names alone flood my mind with memories of towering waterfalls, raging rivers, incredible landscapes, amazing rock formations and campfires that couldn't quite keep the cold at bay. In all my visits through the years, I've seen these "neighborhood" parks as naturalistic-design laboratories, as settings in which careful observation influences the work, fills the spirit and send watershapers back to the drawing board with all sorts of general ideas that might be of use down the line. Conceptual and visual treats, in other words - the stuff of inspiration. Last month, my wife and I ranged a bit farther afield than usual, hopping a plane to visit Yellowstone National Park. I have to say that the experience completely altered my sense of what a "naturalistic-design laboratory" might be. In this one park, I saw more
When I first walked the four acres of wooded ravines of what would later be christened “The Garden of Wind and Pine” at the heart of the Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Ark., I was both delighted and daunted by the experience. The delight came in the site’s sublime natural beauty, which reminded me of tromping through the woods as a child – an activity I enjoy to this day. As for my sense of unease, I
When you approach a design challenge, it always helps to be aware of the work of those who’ve gone before. That’s why college programs for designers, including architects and landscape architects, so often incorporate courses intended to teach students about the history of art and architecture. It’s a foundation that
This is a rather unusual Travelogue: I’d sat down to write a blog about the influence of hotel and resort pools on the way homeowners develop expectations of what can be done in their own backyards, and I recognized almost immediately that
