Posted by The Garden Design Process – I would like to put together an argument that demonstrates more can be made of the preliminary research documents.
When it comes to winning design contracts and selling schemes to clients.
When first being taught to allocate space, the landscape student is guided through several different processes before they reach a final design solution.
It all starts with an accurate topographical land survey. A plan of the site is then drawn up to scale, including boundary walls, existing buildings, trees, services, and existing levels.
Having gathered this information on a local scale, the student should then expand their area of study to the surrounding landscape.
Topographical, historical cultural, and architectural information can be gathered from maps and the internet, which helps put the site into context and may suggest a theme on which to hang their eventual design.
Shadow plans are then calculated to assess the impact of spring and summer shade patterns and a sight Analysis plan is developed to note the influencing factors of the site such as existing features, wind direction good and bad views, etc.
Once all this information has been compiled, the student can start to experiment with space allocation in the form of bubbles or functional diagrams.
All this work is a prerequisite to the creation of the presentation or master plan.