Five principles of landscape design: functionality, comfort, beauty, durability, and innovation.

March 25, 2012

Landscape design.

By and large, landscape design is an art. Without it, our gardens would not be so beautiful. It is all thanks to landscape designers who, sparing no time, think through and sketch out down to the smallest detail the look of the future creation—our garden. It is precisely thanks to landscape design that plots become gardens—comfortable, cozy, with that special atmosphere imparted by a vivid, imaginative concept.

There are many principles of landscape design; five main ones are distinguished.
First, everything in the garden should have its functional purpose. When starting to create a garden, we should clearly envision what tasks we need to solve, what exactly we require in the garden. This should be explained clearly to the landscape designer so that they can correctly draw up the design brief.
The second main principle of landscape design is ease of movement. Moving around the garden should be easy and comfortable; to this end, seating areas should be planned in accordance with ergonomics, paths should be smooth, and the garden’s significant features should be arranged naturally.
The next, most important principle from an aesthetic point of view, is beauty. For a person’s simple presence in the garden to become an aesthetic pleasure, the landscape designer must think everything through carefully. To achieve high expressiveness, you should adhere to the following: compose plant groupings based on foliage contrast, watch the overall silhouette, actively include small architectural forms; landscape design also takes into account experiencing the garden in motion. The pinnacle of landscape art is a garden composed according to the principle of changing scenic vistas as you move along the paths or simply turn your head.
The durability and reliability of all elements is an important point in landscape design. This concerns both engineering and structural solutions, the stable decorative quality of plants, and the choice of planting locations.
The novelty of design solutions is the last of the main principles of landscape design. Every garden should have some striking element or design technique. This is what distinguishes each particular garden from many others.

If we want a garden to resemble a masterpiece, we must certainly follow these five principles. Based on these principles, landscape art has existed for more than one millennium and will continue to exist for many years to come, because good traditions should live on. All the elements of the garden, their character and locations, the overall compositional and color solution must be thought out and considered from the point of view of the five principles of landscape design. Then your garden will be irresistible.