Future Perfect – Blurring Architecture & Landscape
Designed to morph with the years-long changing needs of a young family, this deeply thought-out garden lies ready for anything.
With the benefit of lots of talks with both the architect and her clients over time, Christina Nicholson of banksia and lime landscape architecture could fine tune the design for this inner-city garden. Some for now, and some for later. The clients, Tim and Anna, were true friends of her work and when they agreed on a budget for the renovation of the house, Christina worked closely with architect Simon Pendal to get cracking.
Simon’s resulting design follows his passion for inviting the garden into the house – mostly through views, but he also encourages a blurring of architecture and landscape with plants and shrubs spilling up and over the verandas. Sliding windows and close-to-house planting ensure a restful outlook, and he loved the idea of transforming a pretty bleak buffalo grass and hills hoist backyard into a biodiverse wonderland that works towards rebuilding the local habitat.
“I knew of Christina through her work with other architect mates and we were lucky enough to meet four or five times during the design process,” says Simon. “She updated and amended the plans along the way as the situation changed … designing for two kids then three – stuff like that. Some architects are a bit funny about planting perennials closer to the house but with this design, as it’s such a small space and offset by some internal elements, the mental health benefits of a restful view of growing things outweighs any concerns for passive solar considerations.”
Christina’s brief for the design was “a quirky bush garden with a homestead feel” and she has kept the kids of the family in her mind from front to back. Simon’s signature fencing enclosing the front lawn has a farm-like feel and Christina’s plantings spill onto the street side and move to more structured and considered plantings on the house side of the fence. Lots of sun in winter, with granite boulders and a small lawn a no-brainer for a place for kids to muck around. “It’s the fairy garden for the kids,” says Christina. “The idea was to have a permeable interface with the school, and this is where we have chosen quirkier plants to give it a fun feel.” The house is directly opposite the local primary school in a little narrow street. You could almost have a conversation with a teacher standing in the school from the front veranda. The garden is enclosed, but the open work in the fence and the loose plantings welcome the passing neighbours with a friendly mass of sprawling shrubs and plants of different heights and shapes.
The plan is to enter the house from the side, an area labelled the ‘grey garden’. Christina and Simon worked together to place a series of sculptural concrete platforms, stairs and landings along a deep veranda on the north side of the house. Chalky trunks of ghost gums and silver princess in carefully chosen spots are underplanted with shimmering silver groundcovers that complete the picture.
The veranda is gorgeous. Deep and accommodating, it creates an enormous outdoor living room. The posts are like beautifully crafted furniture, reminiscent of tapered Parker furniture of the 1960s. Each post is the result of months of work by a local artisan from one wandoo tree. A farmer in Chittering Brook had to fell the tree and was able to harvest enough wood to make all of them from it. Wandoo is triple the density of jarrah, almost looks like marble it’s so strong and sleek … and very difficult to work with.
Christina’s treatment of the back garden is a celebration of biodiversity and utility. In one half she has planted over 30 different species. The cutest inclusions are the three special fruit trees – one for each of the kids in the family. A mandarin, lemon and a cherished fig, grown from a cutting from their nonna Maria’s original tree.
There is lots of colour. Flowering gum in orange and red are thriving and their graceful shape counters the rambling feel of the side garden. “We wanted this to be the more lush area of the garden, a carefully curated mixture of textures and colours but tracks for the kids to get around and a sand pit hidden right at the back for them.” Christina’s design of this back area of the house belies her experienced approach. She is a lecturer at University of Western Australia’s School of Design, and her confident consideration of this family’s changing needs demonstrates her experience and depth of knowledge.
“Like every good old Australian garden, we have included a really utilitarian area,” she says. “Not trying to make it pretty, it’s just super useful. There’s walls for the kids to bang balls against, a clothesline, a bit of lawn, trampoline. When the kids are a bit older, they’ll pull out some of this lawn and plant veggie gardens. There’s a design for that. So, we have divided the garden, a beautiful decorative side, with the main views from the house, and a super utilitarian area with plans to use it differently over time.”
With more than five distinct areas for this family to grow and thrive, this garden delivers a perfect complement to a beautiful house.
banksialime.com.au
simonpendal.com
