“The importance of outdoor space I based upon the philosophy that residential site design is based upon the three-dimensional organization of space and not just the creation of two-dimensional patterns on the ground or the arrangement of plant materials among the base of a house. Space is the entity where we live, work, and recreate. Consequently all the site elements that make up the outdoor environent, such as plant material, pavements, walls, fences, and other structures, should be considered as the physical elements that define outdoor space. A residential designer should think of design as the creation and organization of outdoor space and study how these components define and influence the character and mood of space.”
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Norman Booth, Residential Landscape Architecture
"I like to think of gardens as sculpturing of space: a beginning, and a groping to another level of sculptural experience and use: a total sculpture space experience beyond individual sculptures. A man may enter such a space: it is in scale with him; it is real. An empty space has no visual dimension or significance. Scale and meaning enter when some thoughtful object or line is introduced. This is why sculptures, or rather sculptural objects, create space. Their function is illusionist. The size and shape of each element is entirely relative to all the others and the given space. What may be incomplete as sculptural entities are of significance to the whole." - Isamu Noguchi
Wade Cavanaugh + Stephen Nguyen's, "White Stag" in the Material World exhibition at MassMOCA.
Am I surrounded by very mature English Oaks?
Following, in a very literal juxtoposition of two images, I've compared a site element (the use of plant material) with a sculptural installation.
The hedge below is found in Regents Park, London.
**all photos Todd Haiman 2010
