Garden for an Architect
Harris Hobbs have re-interpreted private spaces at three of the dwellings in Urambi Village. In ‘Garden for an Architect’, the north facing open space has been designed to respond to the original design idiom and create a contemporary living space.
The site planning makes use of the borrowed landscape, merging into the wider landscape of the fairways and planted edges. The garden maintains biodiversity and performs as a water efficient garden. The garden includes a mix of natural and artificial materials, transposing ‘new’ with ‘old’ in the textures of raw stone, honed pavers, timber, and artificial grass. There is a diversity of spaces provided in the 180m2 garden.
Artificial grass is used as a porous paving alternative. Rainfall and roof overflow rapidly passes through the material, and percolates through to a gravel subbase, taking excess water into the wider landscape. The selected plantings and hardscape materials have been tested by the designer over a long period in Canberra.
The garden presentation is of high quality, counterpointing the natural materials of stone and timber with artificial materials used in the horizontal and vertical plane. The outcome is crisply finished and demonstrates high quality design and skillful construction. It is a model of a regeneration of a garden to suit changing lifestyles.