An effective landscape lighting plan requires harmonizing your indoor and outdoor lighting systems to create a sense of uniformity and style between the two. Your yard and landscape are very much a part of your home, and should be treated as an extension of the living experience you enjoy inside the walls of your house. Covered patios, screen porches, pergolas and other outdoor entertaining spaces may require indoor lighting techniques. Recessed down lights and ceiling fans now come into play, as do special lights for illuminating the grill. By using wall box dimmer controls, one can adjust light levels to adapt to the event this shows off the structure and illuminates the structure. If up lights are used adjacent to house, elegant shadows are created which dance on the facade of the house on windy evenings. Setting the tone between the threshold of your home and your yard in this fashion establishes the conceptual and emotional foundation of your outdoor garden lighting design that will then extend outward into the green and open spaces beyond. Read more...
Modernism, in the context of landscape design, is a result of forms and functions that reflect the need for outdoor living spaces that enhance contemporary lifestyles. As Garrett Eckbo, one of the central figures in modern landscape architecture, said, landscape design is the “arrangement of environments for people.”
Contemporary garden design tends to focus on scale as opposed to formal landscape designs that are based on axial relationships. It also foregoes the more classic landscape design forms and larger scale from Greek, Roman, and classical architecture traditions. This design motif became popular in the 1950’s baby boom, particularly in California where weather and lifestyle was very conducive to this innovative style. Read more...
