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AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Sculptural Elements
My take on exterior design relies upon sculptural elements: curvaceous, salacious, and al-ways in motion, unless at rest (as is this zenned-out stone watering sphere).
Another touchstone is multiple-function of each element in the landscape.
Good case in point, these vertical elements:
1--1/2 inch stainless steel rigid tubing, cut to varying lengths, then put back together in a bronze weld. Each section has a very slight 'cant' to it, mimicking timber bamboo growth habit. Each pole is firmly set in a concrete foundation for stability (one of their uses are as climbing poles for the grand-kids).
Each pole has random holes drilled into the face directed at the back wall. Light tubing is threaded though each 'fixture', providing a dance of starry lights against that adjacent wall.
The one-ton stone sphere in the foreground, see Water Features, bubbles water through the top while it washes down its sides and disappears into a black pebble basin. The grand-kids enjoy straddling and laying belly down upon it on hot summer days.
Timber bamboo was planted adjacent to these stainless bamboo poles, softening the preponderance of masonry and metals.
Note, the seating wall a corner of top pic, there one may truly, 'sit' (I would like to think that the Buddha would be pleased),
And that my friends is how I roll....
Nesting elements in the landscape.
Two stone spheres at rest in a bed of variegated Vinca major.
So, if you have toiled through this website, I expect that you have picked up on its theme, yes, no...?
That being, our delicious, anthropocentrically riddled world view (at least mine is to some degree), allows us the privilege to bend matter and space to both conform to and delight our senses - verdad?
Thus enters (stage right) the practice of carving up matter and space to suit our functional needs and desires.
So, why not, since we are going to all this trouble, why not, carve out things of beauty, ergo - Sculptural...?
We would be better off, reader, if I treated the English language with as much sensitivity as I do with my hands in the field...
O.K. - here is a 200 pound barstool.
A place to perch and to tilt back a cold one.
Formed from a metal purposed to be buried in concrete, anchoring our built world; an unsung hero of building materials, me thinks...
It is dressed-up in stainless steel accessory for bum and tippy toes (and the backrest is suprisingly comfortable) - go figure.
Beauty comes in many forms.
Beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholder.
This section, Sculptural Elements, has a very wide range, not being limited to artifact or furnishing.
Consider this, (what is it anyway?) pic. Well, I'll tell you: it is a grade embankment, that holds back the runoff from above, and channels it to one of the many rock cisterns on site.
Rather than build more rubble wall to serve this purpose, I instead utilized the abundant river rock available on site.
Now, there is also an abundance of Geckos on site as well, often found mushed on the adjacent driveway.
So yes, it is a sixty foot long squashed Gecko....
With, obsidian eyes!
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