THE JOURNEY

While working toward my graduate degree, a professor of mine (Darrel Morrison) would always emphasize the need to create an experiential and sensory journey within a landscape.  Returning from the Chelsea Flower Show this year I was most empowered by the Daily Telegraph Garden designed by young Sarah Price.  There is much complexity in her elegant design, which is noticed when the visitor moves through the different landscapes (meadow – water – woodland) she has created within her allocated space. This space is an evocation of the beauty and romance of the wild British countryside, inspired by the designer’s own experiences with her family.

“I want to distill some of the atmosphere of those wild and mysterious places, and try to capture the magic of those sudden encounters you get with wild flowers, which might be a cowslip in a field or daisies on a London street.” -Sarah Price interviewed in London Telegraph.

The planting progresses through meadow, water and woodland habitats. Perennials, rushes, grasses and meadow flowers grow around an intricate pattern of pools in Chilmark limestone. The copper details draw inspiration from the mineral-rich upland streams and rills of North Wales and Dartmoor.

A stepping-stone walkway leads across an expanse of water to a simple seating area on a group of boulders. At the rear of the garden a glade of tall, graceful, multi-stemmed Betula pendula (silver birch trees) framing natural spaces.

The kinetic experience of movement through a landscape requires design strategies and considerations – what is sensed while static or while moving - the changes, views, sounds, scents, warmth, coolness, brightness and shade,.... are all layered into the experience of a journey through a landscape.


**all photos/video ©ToddHaiman2012