Minimalist Landscape Design

Isn’t minimalist landscape design the same thing as contemporary landscape design?
It can be because it follows the same aesthetic principle of “less is more,” but in actuality it is much more than that. Minimalism goes back all the way to ancient Greece and Rome and really is all about a controlled approach to plant life cultivation that emphasizes the imposition of human order and the concepts of symmetry and geometry over the wild random patterns of nature. As such, minimalist tendencies are found in all derivative cultural landscape forms that were either once occupied by Rome or influenced by Greco-Roman principles. Consequently, you can apply this approach to landscaping to your yard if you like regardless of the style of your home or the size of your lot.

Can I do this myself?
This is not a task for the do-it-yourselfer. Minimalist landscape design requires a very precise approach to designing each element with just enough detail as to focus attention and please the senses, but never overwhelm them. At the same time, the entire yard must look like an interrelated array of separate elements conjoined by pathways and lighted corridors of interest. This requires close attention to geometry, proportion, scale, and even the grade of the land itself to pull off effectively.

What does your company focus on when creating a minimalist landscape design?
We focus on the following four elements: gardens, architectural walls, custom patios, and water elements.

Gardens
Successful minimalist garden design hinges on doing just enough with plant material but never overdoing the colors or the number of the plants themselves. This is more practical from both an aesthetic perspective and from an outdoor living. The garden becomes more of an outdoor room that can be experienced than a thing to overwhelm the eye. The trick here is to carefully select plants that will stand out as individual elements that share a common theme of interconnectedness when viewed as a whole. Spacing and geometry are much more important here than crowding lots of different plants together like a miniature jungle of greenery and color.

Architectural Walls
Masonry is every important to minimalist landscape design, and is perhaps the one element other than hedges that has survived since ancient times. Stone has always been a mainstay in building architectural walls, but it can be a very costly one. Bricks can work just as well due to the variety of brick colors and types available to masonry specialists. When we build walls, we make sure that the size of the wall, the color of the walls, and the overall geometry of any outdoor room we build works to contain, focus, and direct the flow of organic energy in the cultivated areas of the garden and the yard.

Custom Patios
Custom patios can be constructed from stone, concrete, brick, even wood to create a solid surface that supports human transit. Most important minimalist landscape design, patios help space out the plant life by occupying areas that would otherwise be filled with too much greenery and color.

Water elements
Water elements are used to highlight points of interest and to center garden outdoor rooms in minimalist landscape design. Many people often forget that the swimming pool is a water element in its own right as well and make the mistake of hiring a swimming pool company to build or remodel their pool. This will always diminish, if not outright destroy, the minimalist nature of the landscape because the pool will not “fit” the geometry and layout of the other elements of the landscape master plan.

Swimming pools should be designed by the landscaping professional just like the fountains, natural points, reflecting ponds, and infinity pools that are often used to punctuate high-end properties. This will ensure that the specifications of the pool respect the home and surrounding property and will provide the pool contractor that we bring in with a better frame of reference to work with.

Minimalist Garden Design

What characterizes minimalist garden design?
It is an approach to gardening based upon the belief that less is more. Plant materials are carefully selected. Unusual materials are often integrated into the softscape in very innovative ways. Hardscapes are used to establish strong lines and stark geometry. There is also a heavy emphasis on symmetry.

What are some of the more unique elements used in this design?
It often draws upon industrial elements such as stainless steel and glass. These elements are deliberately placed in a way as to suggest human dominion over natural forces. Contemporary art is very common in landscapes where the home itself is characterized by a very avant garde design that warrants reflection and compliment throughout the landscape. Water is also used to establish a sense of peace and tranquility. This can be in the form of a custom fountain or a reflecting pool centered within the various elements.

How popular is this garden design?
Minimalist garden design has been around for centuries. Many cultures have found that a less-is-more approach to landscaping is a great way to express certain values and traditions in a clearly recognizable way that avoids overwhelming the senses. In recent times, this approach to gardening has exploded in popularity—partly due to the popularity of contemporary landscaping design.

Does minimalist garden design only work with contemporary landscapes?
No. As we have noted here and in previous blogs, minimalism goes all the way back to Greek and Roman times. Because of this, you can find traces of minimalism in every popular European garden design style, including French Formal, Parterre, English, Italian, and Mediterranean. You also see minimalism in Japanese gardens as well. Minimalism is a philosophy, remember, not a single style. Any landscaping style can benefit from the controlled, conservative aesthetic it represents.

What are some specific benefits of minimalist garden design?
It is an ideal lifestyle compliment to young professionals who have just recently purchased their first home. It is low maintenance by nature, so the homeowner never has to worry about upkeep. Due to its cautious use of softscape elements, it also has a very clean appearance which adds attraction factor to home entertainment events. The reduced sense of clutter gives the yard a greater feeling of spaciousness that leaves plenty of room to develop other areas of interest throughout the property. Everything from swimming pool design, outdoor kitchen architecture, sports recreation areas, and courtyards can look good all year round when complimented by a garden that works more to compliment geometry, landscape design them, and activity than it does to draw attention exclusively to itself.

Are there any problems with minimalism I should be aware of?
If you are a do-it-yourselfer, minimalist garden design is definitely a problematic aesthetic that is best outsourced to a professional landscape designer. Do not be deceived into thinking minimal means easy. The phrase “less is more” is a literary oxymoron—something that appears to make no sense at face value. Many people who try to plant minimalist gardens themselves create something that looks barren or boring because they overdo the “less” part of the equation.

Such a tightrope of design can only be walked by a landscape designer who can implement minimalist garden design as one of many interrelated components of a landscape master plan. This master plan is intended to create an outdoor living space that compliments the architecture of your home and ties all of the surrounding landscape features together.

Minimalist Design

Minimalism can be found in many different types of gardens and landscapes, including formal, French, Italian, Mediterranean, and small garden design. All of these cultures share Greeks and Roman origins. These classical societies were the first to use minimalist in the ancient world for civil engineering and landscaping. Minimalism, to them, was the embodiment of their values of moderation and order.

Minimalist design in architecture and landscaping actually help the Romans condition subject peoples into liking their new lives in the empire. The linear plantings of boxwoods and poplars replaced the wild, chaotic underbrush of jungles and swamps. Topiaries shaped like predatory animals replaced the actual animals that disputed the human position at the top of the food chain.

Of course, the reasons for minimalist design changed greatly after the fall of Rome. It was no longer needed for civil and social conditioning and engineering. However, European aristocracy never lost its fascination for posterity, and sometimes out a megalomaniac desire to rebuild the Roman Empire led to a renewed passion in all things classical. While such Humpty Dumpty maneuverings never made any real political progress, but they did make way for a diversification of classical garden and landscape designs into all of the many cultural forms we are familiar with today.

Again, while none of these landscape designs have to be minimalist by nature, all of share common classical roots and can be customized to Houston landscapes with similar intentions to those of classical landowners. While we may not be fear Nature like our ancestors did, we still want to control it.

Ours obsession with controlling Nature has always been present with humanity since we made a conscious, collective decision not to stop being eaten by other animals. However, since the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th Century, we have become obsessed with controlling almost every aspect of Nature. We are no longer looking to simply control wildlife and ecosystems, but to manipulate the very laws of Nature itself. As a result, the mathematical, the scientific, and the abstract have now replaced the organic and the symbolic elements of art and spirituality.

Geometry is now even more important to minimalist design because it serves as the one link between what remains of the organic world, the architecture of the home, and the abstract realms of human thought. Unlike their classical equivalents, contemporary and modern minimalist gardens and yards do more than try to control and limit natural growth. They actively seek to replace natural elements with inorganic features like hardscapes, rocks, gravel, statuary, and outdoor art. This challenges your sense of order and reality, and it forces you to draw conclusions on an exclusively subjective basis.

Contemporary Patio

What are the advantages of a contemporary patio?
You may not have read this before, but a patio is actually less expensive than a deck. This is especially true if standard cost materials are used and no masonry walls are built around its surface.

In addition to being a money saver, a contemporary patio can be built with maintenance free materials. You can expect to get decades—not years—of perpetual enjoyment out of your new hardscapes. Another advantage is that you can have it build in any geometric shape and any size that complements your home architecture and ties it into the theme of your modern landscape. Many are actually curved with radial arcs to break up the linearity that repeats throughout a contemporary landscape.

Advantages of Patios

What about furniture for my contemporary patio?
New developments have allowed manufactures to duplicate the types of furniture that have always been used indoors. You can get everything from ottomans to chairs and dining room tables that are weather resistant. The trick is to make sure that you match the design and color of your furniture to something that will work with you home and your landscape. Ask our team for advice on this, because we know several places where you can find furnishings that will work for you on this level.

What kind of plants go well with a contemporary patio?
We prefer to use plants that are darker in color because of how they compliment the minimalism of the typical modern landscape. You see, vegetation is not the primary material that makes a contemporary yard actually work. Geometry and repetition are more important. Contemporary landscaping is all about the mind and its constant tendency to segment and create relationships out of abstract elements. Vegetation is tightly controlled and used as adjunct support to geometry and form. Around the edges of the patio, we normally plant low-level cover that would form a border of emphasis. For vertical impact, we often plant bamboo around the edges—particularly an edge that intersects with a wall. If you want vertical impact inside the patio surface itself, another thing we can do is to remove a portion of the hardscape and turn it into a planter for tall plants or even small trees.

What type of materials do you build contemporary patios with?

Real Stone
When stone is finished and polished, it is the very best material to use for building a contemporary patio. The costs are significant, however, because it is expensive to cut and finish the stone to this level of refinement. You also have to pay for higher labor rates because stone must be hand laid with careful, methodical, and deliberate attention.

Stone has the most natural outlook, most durable but also the most expensive type of patio materials. It require good skills to install because each stone greatly varies in shape and size. Additionally, mortar compound is used to adjoin these stones and settle as they dry. It is designed to wear well in high-traffic, need little maintenance and could last for decades.

Cultured Stone
Stone veneer is lighter and less expensive than real stone. It is a manufactured material that imitates real stone, but it does not have to be quarried and polished. Veneer can be cut with saws and laid out in blocks on the ground like bricks. Simple mortar is all you normally need to hold veneers together.

Concrete
Plain concrete works very well with any contemporary landscape. It suggests a sense of very stark absolutes that go hand-in-hand with the rugged Mentalism of modern outdoor landscaping.

Of course, you may want your patio to look a bit more decorative if it is right next to your house. In that case, we can either stamp or stain the color to make it appear more like finished stone.

Brick
Brick is good for smaller patios and for building hardscapes that are circular in design. There are many patterns we can create with bricks that generate radii and linear expansions of movement.

Contemporary Garden

What distinguishes a contemporary garden?
There is an emphasis on hardscape and geometry. Plant life is minimized to support a more Mentalist view of the world. Water, sculpture, art, and special materials are all carefully arranged around select plantings of vegetation to support the idea of a world where Man dominates and controls his environment.

What types of plants are to be used?
Plants that have a strong shape, texture, or color are preferred. The idea is to communicate a feeling of stark absolutes in everything we do. Some species that may be useful to this purpose include bamboo, fruitless olive, wormwood, blue fescue, and Crimson Pointe Flowering Plum.

Shrubs should be darker in color to compliment the gray and white hardscapes that are common in a contemporary garden.

Should it have water fountains?
It does not necessarily need a water fountain in the traditional sense of the term. Modern and contemporary art are by nature highly abstract. There are a number of things we can do in such a setting that using running water as a decorative element in its own right. Again, this does not require creating a typical fountain with a visible bowl or spout. A pump can be placed underground to make water emerge mysteriously out of gravel. Or, it can pour over a mirror or stainless steel back plane like an avant garde, artificial waterfall.

If the area is large enough, a small stream can be created that will cut through rocks, hardscapes, or vegetation in a geometric pathway that contributes dimensions and fluidity to the scene. Remember, the whole point of using water as a landscape element is to generate a state of mind where freedom of consciousness is conveyed through the movement, and tranquility of emotion are established through the sound.

Both attributes of water features lend themselves very well to contemporary gardens for this reason.

Does it have rocks or gravel?
Absolutely. Rock and gravel function as replacements to grass. They also help break up larger segments of the hardscape like concrete pavers or large stone blocks without giving way to the temptation to overplant vegetation in areas where portions of the hardscape have to be removed.

What we wind up with instead are sections of gravel where plants are growing out of the rocks rather than grass. There is a sense of life here, but a very controlled sense of life due to the absence of an entirely “green patch” of vegetation, per se.

Should it have art?
Yes. There are many forms of abstract art that can be integrated into a contemporary garden. Metal sculpture lends itself well to this style because it can be worked so many different ways. Mirrors can garden elements with a trick of the eye. Installing a single planting of vegetation and several mirrors can set up an illusion where the amount of visible greenery is completely relative to position and point of view.

Is masonry design part of contemporary gardens?
Yes. Many times we use bricks, concrete blocks, or cut stones to build architectural walls or planters. These structures add vertical impact when constructed within the boundaries of the garden. In cases where we are installing a contemporary hardscape and softscape as part of a courtyard, we use masonry contractors to create architectural walls around the seating area, water features, sculpture and plant life within.

Simple Garde Design

Why is it called simple?
Simple garden design is so called because it is based upon the awareness that less is actually more. The intention in this particular element of landscaping is not to create grand outdoor living experience or a peculiar sense of the exotic. It focuses instead on establishing basic sensory experiences of sight, sound, and smell that create a desired state of mind. The geometry is very basic as well—sometimes even being deliberately plain. Colors are attractive but not overdone so as to suggest an experience to the eyes without overwhelming them.

What style or theme can you use in a simple garden design?
We would base the style on that of your home’s architecture. This does not necessarily mean that your garden will look like an identical geometric compliment to your walls and rooftop. It may work better as a counterpoint to architecture than a direct, reflective correspondence. It may also provide a vital focal point for your landscape master plan.

What is a focal point?
A focal point is something that you use a landscape element to draw attention to. For example, if you have outdoor buildings, focal points should be established near the entrances of each so people can see where these structures are and how to enter them.

Some other very important uses of focal points include attracting attention to outdoor art and special monumentation like custom fountains. Focal points are also very important in large yards that have to be divided into zones of interest in order to prevent guests from being overwhelmed by a feeling of too much space.

Simple garden design can be used in all of these settings to establish perspective and boundaries.

What do I need to be careful about?
You need to be careful of people that promise you the moon for low costs.

Many people think that simple garden design means they can simply build themselves by going to a nursery and picking out some plants they like. What happens, though, when they get to the nursery, is that well-intentioned people offer them advise on installation that is almost never apropos to the homeowner’s needs.

If you go this route, you will probably end up with a collection of pretty plants and flowers, but that does nothing to contribute to aesthetic of your home and yard.

It is better to have a design created by a professional who can develop something that provides you with an experience in its own right, but whose size, geometry, texture, and sensory experiences builds aesthetically expansive relationships within the context of a larger landscape master plan.

Can simple garden design be a part of a patio?
Yes. This is often done with fireplace patios outdoors. For swimming pool patios, however, this is not practical. People step in the plants, and the plants would get too wet. Around these hardscapes, it is better to install garden materials that add accent and form to the surface and that work to blend the inorganic structure of the patio into the surrounding lawn and general landscape beyond.

Contemporary Garden Fountains

What is a contemporary garden fountain?
By definition, it is a custom water feature characterized by stark geometry, superior construction materials, and mechanical sophistication. They operate on remote, silent pumps that circulate water silently so that all you hear is the water itself.

Contemporary water fountains are highly customized to fit the unique parameters of an individual residence. Designs are based on linear forms and radial arcs. Decorative flair is deliberately minimized out of an eclectic passion for the abstract.

Does the presence of a contemporary garden fountain add any curb appeal to my landscape?
Yes. If you have a fountain like this build in the front of your yard, it will draw the viewer’s gaze directly in line with your front door. If you add a fountain to a backyard landscape, it will suggest a sense of outdoor living to prospective buyers.

What functional contributions can a contemporary garden fountain do for my yard?
One thing it will definitely do for you is drown out the sounds of the city with the peaceful sounds of running water. Contemporary landscape design is all about Mentalism. Adding an island of tranquility to the challenging geometry of the landscape is an excellent way to balance sense and sensibility throughout your yard.

A contemporary garden fountain is often built as the centerpiece in a courtyard garden of some sort. When lit with underwater lights, it can illuminate the immediate seating area around the fountain and serve as a focal point for conversation.

What aesthetic contribution does a contemporary garden fountain make to the landscape?
For one thing, it adds a very unique and dynamic form of vertical impact to a contemporary garden. Water suggests the essence of life but is non-organic in its own right. Its lack of form is ideal for a landscape shaped by abstract conceptual that challenge the comfort zone of the five senses. However, since water is the foundation of life itself it paradoxically works to soften a contemporary landscape just enough to make it appealing.

What materials are used to construct contemporary garden fountains?
Any material that catches the eye and provides a stable structure will work, really. Cut, finished stone is a favorite among many contemporary Houston homeowners. Resin and fiberglass also make excellent building materials for smaller fountains used to decorate small courtyard gardens or private patio gardens. This is done to emulate stone or concrete in an environment that cannot support a great deal of weight.

Another very popular construction method is to blend either copper or steel with some kind of stone. The combinations of texture and color that result from such blends are nearly infinite.

How large are these fountains?
They can range in size from very small, simple structures surrounding by a few stepping stones and boxwoods to sizes large enough for children to play in. Contemporary design is one of our favorite styles of landscaping, period; because it is so subjective by nature that customization is never a problem.

Whatever you want your fountain to look like, we can build it to order, and we can make it work with your landscape master plan either as the central hub of attraction and outdoor living, or as a supportive, minor element in a more complex and grand design.

Garden Walls

Straight or curvilinear, square, rectangular or circled, walls are vibrant additions to the design of your landscape. At Exterior Worlds, we have built them for needed privacy, as the backdrop for raised flowerbeds or rock landscaping, to demark property lines, for a visual divide between your turf and the garden beds or between your patio and lawn, to guide guests through your gardens, or to terrace the contours of your property.

A type of landscape architecture, walls are the means to accomplish a beautiful end: as a living garden wall to give your space verdant definition, as a natural and visual transition between your house and the yards, put to work as a sturdy retaining garden wall, perhaps doubling as permanent seating or planter. In other words, use them anywhere you need to define a space with a lovely touch.

Our clients have enjoyed them in additional ways. We have installed outdoor walls to function as the dividers that close off part of a patio to provide a quiet retreat and to encircle an outdoor room. We have created micro-climates with them—building a wall facing north or east followed by planting species of plants that prefer shade. Similarly, we have used the wall as support for vines and climbing roses.

For material choices when building an outdoor wall, you have a wide range of options, including stone, brick, pre-formed masonry blocks, wood, stucco and frosted glass, each with its own look. For example, a brick garden wall lends a formal touch to your landscape in comparison to wood. Because the wall should unify your landscape with the architecture of your property’s structures, we encourage our clients to carefully consider the relationship of the wall to their home and the style of both.

Because exterior walls come in all heights, they are perfect tools within your landscape’s “language” for creating physical or mental private areas and barriers. Exterior Worlds is known for our expertise in navigating through the approval process that most municipalities have in place for walls built over a certain height. For instance, some cities may require that an engineer approve plans for any wall built two feet or taller.

We have found that an exterior wall fits into any garden theme or design. You will find walls work well in a Zen garden or modern garden décor, while the romantic ones, such as English gardens and Southern gardens, practically demand one.

Walls in gardens complement other features within your landscape design—for example, paired with a luxury spa, thus providing additional seclusion and a sense of enclosure. They are also suitable for garden wall fountains which you can find in a range of shapes, styles and configurations.

Outdoor walls are delightful, charming and useful architectural elements in your yard’s design. But please keep in mind that building such a structure is a craft, in its planning, placement and construction. At Exterior Worlds, we pride ourselves in the highest level of professionalism and workmanship, which will only increase your pleasure in your outdoor wall—now, and for all the years to come.

What is the art of water?

What is the art of water?
It is the use of water features to beautify a landscape

What features make water art and not just water?
The art of water depends partly on movement. When mobile and fluid, water gives the mind a feeling of being freed from form and rigid constructs. To maintain a sense of artistry, however, fluidity must be focused. Some type of geometric boundary or structure is necessary to lend aesthetic to the scene at hand. When these two elements are combined proportionally, the art of water then functions to compliment and reflect both organic and inorganic landscape elements. Vegetation looks more supported by the very stuff of life itself, and architecture becomes more dynamic and preeminent as it is reflected from a variety of angles that magnify its preeminence and sense of proportion.

How does the art of water support architecture?
Fountains are very important elements to landscape architecture. As masonry forms, they mirror the geometry of homes, patios, and outdoor buildings. As water moves out of these structures, it gives life and emergence to these forms. Putting lights in a fountain adds an even greater dimension to the scene.

Reflecting pools and infinity ponds create mirrored surfaces that actually reflect the forms of buildings. Structures then take on new significance, and smaller landscapes can be made to look much larger and complete with this effect.

How does the art of water support softscape?
The art of water is essential to creating a landscape that looks like Nature, so to speak. Even in the driest parts of the world there are rivers, oases, and beaches, so few topographies exist that do not have water somewhere in the scenery. When we create a backyard landscape to represent a wilderness area, elements like natural pools play a very critical role in establishing a sense of getaway from the big city. Streams and waterfalls are two other designs that can be added to a backyard to add a sense of movement and freedom.

More refined European garden designs can be customized by adding water features. Fountains can be placed at the heart of small parterre gardens, for example, in order to magnify their sense of proportion and aesthetic impact. Koi ponds can occupy the central positions of entry garden courtyards. Waterfalls can actually be built to act as lighted walls at night and separate one portion of the landscape from the rest, or even one property from adjacent yards. The art of water in these landscape designs always helps to create a sense life energy that is emerging, dynamic, organic, and diverse.

What landscape designs benefit the most from the art of water?
While the art of water is used in every landscape master plan to some degree, its greatest benefits are seen in contemporary and modern landscape designs. In contemporary landscape design, we find an aesthetic that is extremely mentalist, mathematical, and abstract. Vegetation is scarcer in this landscape style than in any other aesthetic. Consequently, since organic life is minimized, the stuff of life itself—water—is often used as a substitute for vegetation.

Custom fountain work is therefore very important to both commercial and contemporary residential landscapes. In patio design, it adds vertical presence to a horizontal plane. In other areas of the yard, such as the central entryway to the front yard, or in a special seating area in the back yard, contemporary fountains create movement and a feeling of vitality without having to deviate from an essentially inorganic design form.

Modern landscape design is not quite so abstract or inorganic as contemporary landscape design. There is more vegetation, particularly in styles like modern tropical gardens. The art of water here not only adds a sense of life, but it also provides linkage between living elements and nonliving structures. Modern garden décor will often call for a blend of high-grade material constructs, such as glass walls and steel columns, surrounding by plants of various species. Turning the glass wall into the backdrop for a waterfall fountain is a good example of what we mean by water becoming more than water, transforming itself aesthetically into the literal art of water.

High End Modern Landscapes

High end modern landscapes can be developed around both residential and commercial environments. What makes these landscapes so sophisticated is their deliberate use of geometric forms, high-grade materials, and particularity in plant species selection to create an ultra-modern presence around a building or a home. Whereas modern landscape design seeks to support architecture from a complimentary perspective, high end contemporary landscapes almost act as mirrors to the home or building and transform the entire landscape into something of a structure in its own right.

The commercial clients that we work for in various industries often need a specific type of exterior presence to establish the sense and sensibility of what they represent. Art galleries, museums, colleges, and modern buildings represent just some of the commercial arenas in which this exceptional style adds value and attraction factor.

Most of our work to date, however, has been in the residential arena. Exterior World builds high end modern landscapes mostly in residential environments throughout Houston neighborhoods such as Tanglewood, Royal Oaks, Hedwig Village, Memorial, and River Oaks. Any contemporary or modern home can be made to look virtually brand new with a high end contemporary landscape that extends its geometric uniqueness into open space. Clients looking to add property value to their home investment should consider this as one excellent means to this end.
High-grade materials and sophisticated forms are essential to the success of high-end modern landscapes. Water features play a significant, if not predominant role, in many of our designs. Reflecting pools and negative edge pools can be built on both commercial and residential landscapes. These highly geometric water features create dimension and movement wherever they are added. Stainless steel structures can be installed to magnify the reflectivity of the water. Glass can be used to create windows into special points of interest or prismatically bend light into water. Special concrete forms and gravel patterns layer the landscape with a blend of natural stonework and planned, deliberate hardscape.

Indeed, the use of paving is very important to the overall aesthetic of any high end contemporary landscape. Paving creates large spaces dedicated to alternating patterns of stasis and transition. Patios and walkways can be built at slightly different elevation to convey a sense of journey. Steps can be constructed to mimic the exact rhythm of a natural footstep so guests hardly know they are walking up or down stairs. Small architectural walls can then be built along these walkways to connote special importance and a sense of controlled, focus movement. Arches can also be built where patios meet walkways to create a sense of entrance into either an open space or a special space set apart for specific uses.

Vegetation is typically kept to a minimum in high end contemporary landscape design. The old literary adage “less as more” is the modern landscape developer’s motto as well. While we do not want the landscape to look sterile, we want to create the sense that Nature as a force that supports the apex of man’s evolution, not as a realm that grows randomly on its own and stands to possibly compete with human structure. Vegetation that is very tall and can grow in compact spaces is typically preferred over lush foliage. Species of low-growth trees and bamboo can be installed in the tightest of spots to add rich, organic presence to any scene. Ground cover that is dark, and special grasses that grow well in shaded areas and graveled areas, are preferred to hardier species that tend to spread.

Modern Outdoor Garden

The modern outdoor garden is many times the most important feature of the modern or contemporary landscape. This type of garden downplays the role of organic décor in landscape architecture and look instead to geometric forms, relationships, and sophisticated materials to communicate a mentalist and highly subjective aesthetic that emphasizes human thought over natural life.

The geometry used is always that of familiar geometric shapes or derivative forms thereof. Quadrilaterals are favored linear forms that allow gardens to follow the property line, architectural walls, contemporary koi ponds, infinity pools, and the walls of a house or office building. Triangular forms are often built to compliment avant garde contemporary sculptures. Circular forms are frequently used as focal points within the landscape, or as aesthetic foundations for contemporary fountains.

The materials that are used to build the garden must always be highly reflective and catch the attention of the viewer. This is because inorganic elements will frequently constitute over 90% of the entire modern outdoor garden. It is therefore very important that we choose something that will remain reflective at night as well as during the daytime.

A good many rock surfaces and masonry elements will work superbly for this task provided they are sufficiently polished. Granite or marble can be used to build ornamental walls that frame the garden. Or, a patio-like effect can be created with polished limestone or stepping stone. Portions of this surface can then be removed for selective planting of small trees, grasses, and white flowers. Concealed landscape lighting can then be installed that will generate a reflective glare that makes both the hardscape design and the vegetation stand out at nighttime.

Steel is also a favored construction material for modern outdoor garden design. Steel posts can be used as centerpieces in gardens where there is no fountain. Or, we can build two steel posts to either side of the center and build a glass wall between them.

Glass makes an excellent frame for a fountain in the background. It also provides one of the most interesting and interesting surface areas for outdoor landscape lighting. These lights can be positioned behind the wall to shine through it. If we want to create a prismatic effect, we can use opaque or beveled glass and position concealed lighting fixtures to shine at an angle through the wall.

If we want to reflect white light upward toward the sky, we will use clear glass and mount concealed ground lighting fixtures either at the base of the wall or just behind it.

If minimal vine growth is desired due to the fact that we are building a very small modern outdoor garden, a cable can be substituted for the glass wall. This steel cable can hang suspended between two posts, or it can be stretched taught between them and used to hang chimes, ornamental objects, or even small potted plants.

Modern Water Gardens

Modern water gardens create a feeling of life in the realm of the abstract and mathematical. The intent of anything modern and contemporary is to emphasize the preeminence of man above the forces of nature. Since Nature is associated with greenery in collective consciousness, the presence of greenery in a modern water garden must be very selective—or even minimized—in places. Hard straight lines, abrupt intersections, and linear movements that fan out at times into radiuses (half circle constructions) establish a stark, Spartan view of the world. Water reduces the sense of life to its most raw and elemental base, and outcroppings of greenery strategically placed within the form indicated potentials of emergence more so than lush realities of organic comforts.

Modern water gardens are ideal centerpieces for courtyards and atriums. They create a focal point of fluidity within form that captivates attention and lends itself to tranquility and relaxation. In commercial environments, we build a lot of these in break areas. Colleges and universities will also hire us to build study areas around these gardens to give their students an alternative to the cloister of cubicles and library walls. Fountains are very commonly built within these structures to complete the feeling of a meditative environment where time has been removed from the present moment.

Water features are often constructed of natural stones like granite that have been quarried, shaped, and polished to a high degree of sophistication. The shells and copings around modern gardens often gleam as brightly as the water they contain. Quarried slabs of granite can be laid in symmetrical patterns to create any number of geometric shapes. Rectangular gardens can be built alongside of homes, architectural walls, or as “visual bridges” between major landscape design elements. Functionality can be built into these structures in the form of patio seating areas, sidewalk structures, and stepping stone walkways that move across the surface of the water. Linear modern water gardens in these instances can actually define progressions of physical movement as well as the movement of the eye.

This opens the door for the modern water garden to be the focal point of events in a modern landscape design. By bringing the gathering to the edge of the water, one defines the tone of the activity with the sophisticated aesthetic of polished stones, flowing water, gravel, small trees, and geometric plantings of dark green vegetation and sprinklings of coloration produced by controlled plantings of flowering plants. The most popular color in these gardens is white because it provides an excellent complement to the colors of stones and gravel and a superb contrast as well to the dark greens of boxwoods, mondo grass, and other dark green colors. Light green vegetation is normally avoided because it is a bit too lively for the controlled setting we are looking to create in these environments.

Water features always have a streamlined appearance. Flow is quite thanks to silent pumps and hidden mechanisms move the water in a linear progression from one end of the structure to the other. This keeps the modern water garden from appearing too forced in its mentalist, absolute design. Water that flows like a stream or waterfall softens the surrounding features of rock, gravel, polished coping, and custom fountain design with a soothing fluidity that brings a sense of harmony to the mix of hardscape and accent softscape elements that surround it. This, again, makes for an ideal gathering place on any contemporary landscape where conversation, celebration, and appreciation all flow together into the same emotional stream.

Modern Home Garden

The modern home garden is a contemporary style intended to work as a direct corollary to modern or contemporary home architecture.

The complimentary power of a modern home garden is multi-dimensional. It is a blend of reflection and contrast. Without this juxtaposition of opposing aesthetics, the garden would appear too minimalist and lose its innate power of attention and magnification. However, when opposing corollaries are fused into a focused synthesis, a modern home garden can appear to be as complex and structurally robust as the house whose form it works to enhance.

Lines in the modern home garden are used to reflect linear forms in the home architecture. By lines we mean any hardscape structure or design within a hardscape that moves in a straight progression along a horizontal or vertical axis. This includes the boundaries of the garden as well as decorative elements within it. Some of these designs call for the construction of small architectural walls that loosely resemble a courtyard or entry garden. Others utilize stones or brick laid out in sharp linear patterns and right angles to convey a sense of horizontal and vertical movements. Such progressions mirror the edifice of the home exterior and help create a subconscious sense of framing in the mind of the viewer.

Radii also play an important role in today’s modern home garden. This is because modern architecture often features curves that soften and connect the otherwise harsh and separatist elements of rigid angles and stark linearity. Radii that are either designed into the hardscape itself or generated by a creative planting of dark green, low-level ground cover provide direct visual correspondence to these curved spaces and give the entire edifice a sense of extension.

Keep in mind that we are not talking here about the typical circular forms and compound curves you see in traditional architecture. These are more like arcs and cut-out segments of circles than a truly round geometric design. They are more like fluid line segments that arcs diagonally juxtaposed against intersecting perpendicular lines that create right angles. In architecture, these arcs often add a visual flare to the areas along rooftops and portions of the wall adjacent to windows. In modern home gardens, they can occupy one or more quadrants of a quadrilaterals-shaped planting, or they can shoot off the end of a linear planting to create the illusion of multi-dimensional geometry.

As complex as it sounds, modern home garden design is not so much a complex garden form in and of itself, but rather a collage of simple geometric patterns in vegetation and hardscapes whose near infinite number of combinations compound into images that are representative of the abstract qualities of mind and independent from any recognizable form beyond that of the simple circle, line, angel, or arc.

Modern Garden Ideas

On one level, all modern garden ideas are based upon a common set of core values. Like other components of modern landscape design, they consist primarily of inorganic elements. Structure is a symbol of conscious thought; plant life symbolizes the energies of life and mind. A tendency to use hardscapes as containment fields for Spartan plantings of vegetation is clearly evident. This works to thematically express the belief that man has mastered the forces of his own mind and is capable of controlling his own destiny.

The geometric patterns that constitute the foundational aspects of modern garden ideas are very basic inn and of themselves. There are four essential forms that can be used in this discipline. Linear lines and structures are very often used to decorate iron fences, stone walls, or the exterior of a home. Quadrilateral constructs are used to extend the architectural themes of outdoor buildings and custom swimming pools designed in rectangular form. Triangular designs can be very effective in introducing abstract sculptures to the eye. Circles represent both feminine form and spirituality and are often found around trees and fountains.

Due to the fact that inorganic elements form the basis of all modern garden ideas, it is necessary to begin the planning phase of every project with a detailed survey of the property. This will help us identify the best locations in which to do our work. These areas will in some way always be tied to some sort of hardscape. Patios, walkways, decorative walls, and even motor courts are all in effect foundations for design. Many of these locations are adjacent to significant structures like the house or an outdoor kitchen. Reconstructing the hardscape with new organic elements adds a new dimension of energy and vitality to the architecture of the structure that subliminally communicates a sense of outdoor living experience so crucial to any kind of landscape architecture, be it contemporary or traditional.

Since the whole point of landscape design is to create this sort of outdoor living experience, is also important that we focus our attention on any decorative focal points and all major areas of activity. In gathering places, modern garden ideas are developed as emblematic expressions of the activities that transpire there. A patio area around a pool, for example, is normally the scene of a great deal of movement. People do not just sit around the pool. They get up and walk around, and most get in the water, or at least put their feet in it. A garden here would feature decorative patterns in the hardscape and careful plantings of vegetation that would reflect movement toward the center of the pool. Whether or not these patterns would feature linear, circular, or rectangular geometry depends entirely on the shape of the pool and the patio itself.

On the other hand, accenting decorative focal points on the landscape requires a slightly different approach. Modern garden ideas here are determined by what works best as a supportive element that brings attention to the decorative element. If it is a statue, vertical elements may be added to the hardscape and vegetation to draw the eye upward to the form. If it is a fountain, a garden will normally function as the aesthetic base of the entire piece, making it appear as if the fountain itself rose up from the amalgam of hardscape and plant material as a blend of fluidity and form. Again, the patterns and materials that are used to construct these adjunct supportive elements are developed in accordance both with the immediate form at hand and an aesthetic awareness of the landscape as an entirety.

Regardless of location or intent, the ultimate success of every design depends on a very careful and deliberate selection of vegetation. Too much organic presence destroys the essence of the design, so an intentionally minimalist approach must be taken. Dark colored vegetation is preferable because it works better with the stark absolutism of stone and hardscape. Trees should be small and isolated, almost as if they were stunted—to indicate the control of human consciousness over the otherwise unlimited growth potential of nature. Color schemes in modern garden ideas should be treated with the same minimalism. Colorful, flowering plants should only be used to the extent that surrounding modern art or contemporary architecture uses color to develop style and theme. Any more than this will risk losing the deliberate tension inherent to modern garden ideas and contemporary landscaping in general.

Modern Courtyard Design

Modern courtyard design elevates human consciousness over natural forces. It emphasizes thought over feeling but does not completely ignore feeing. Abstract ideas are treated with equal value to the more commonly understood concrete forms of daily empirical reality.

Modern courtyard design works on one level by creating visual tension and interest with alternating contrast and symmetry. The perimeter will often be designed as a standard or derivative geometric shape, and then decorated within with opposing or complimentary geometric patterns.

For instance, a square modern courtyard can be designed with a patio that is punctuated by expanding concentric circles and radiating lines. A circular atrium can be contrasted by a diamond pattern or square block pattern on the patio surface. A patio of any type also can be segmented into alternating areas for seating and plantings.

The above illustrations show how modern courtyard design relies heavily on minimalism to achieve its ends. Simplicity is the key to key to achieving creative success. Taking only basic geometric shapes, curves, and linear lines with sharp angles, we can distort or extend these patterns into an infinite variety of shapes or expanding lines of movement.

Radii are used a great deal in modern hardscapes because they force the eye to first travel inward to their originating point, then move outward again. This back and forth movement unconsciously suggests the infinite contained within finite space.

Another element of minimalism that is key to modern courtyard design is the selecting the appropriate number and species of plants. Colorful flowers do not work well in these settings because they are too suggestive of traditional gardens and Nature itself. Shrubs with dark green leaves and white or purple blooms constitute the extent of color decoration in the majority of modern courtyard design.

Virtually any type of hedge, shrub, or small tree that fits this description will work, provided the amount of organic material never overpowers the human element. It is essential that natural elements be used only to support man-made patterns, never the other way around. As a general rule, vegetation should total no more than 30-40 percent of the space here. The rest should be inorganic and geometrical.

Aside from these few basic principles, there are little restrictions way a modern courtyard can be designed. Much like modern art, it is a highly subjective style that allows for tremendous client input and creative freedom on the part of the landscape professional.

Because of the innate diversity for which it allows, the modern courtyard is one of the most popular forms of hardscape design and common in a wide variety of settings. It is equally popular in commercial, academic, municipal, and residential environments. Depending on the setting, it is most commonly used as a break area, reading area, or private space for personal conversation.

Modern Garden Design

Modern garden design allows functional elements of landscapes such as walkways, parking areas, and patios to be a part of the landscape as opposed to a typical stand alone element. This is typically seen in contemporary landscapes, which feature very stark geometry and oft abstract ideas. The inorganic predominates in such a yard, with the organic serving to frame or connect significant geometric design elements and outdoor forms. Gardens are minimalist creations, serving a master design plan that promotes human consciousness above the aesthetics of nature and fundamental patterns found therein.

In a contemporary landscape, the modern garden is primarily inorganic in both element and design. Its function is to support manmade structures and home architecture, not showcase natural elements as an aesthetic in their own right. Darker foliage is preferred in these settings because it adds to the sense of stark absolutism inherent in modern landscaping. Boxwoods and mondo grass are typically used in linear plantings than run adjacent to a wall, such as we commonly see in backyard design. Modern garden areas can also be planted inside of hardscapes by removing portions of concrete, blocks, or stone. This has the effect of making nature look contained within modern human paradigms, and forms of nature sculpted to human geometric design.

A modern garden can also function as a perimeter element that adds emphasis to a major contemporary design element. Modern fountains are normally very predominant elements in contemporary landscaping, and adding a circular planting around its base helps strengthen its sense of form. The linear elements of contemporary wall fountains can similarly be magnified with low-profile plantings that emphasize strong lines at the base of the fountain and geometric angles inherent to its design.

Many custom homes feature an eclectic blend of architectural styles and are not purely contemporary or modern styles, per se. A garden here can be more organic and diverse in its design, provided it supports some aspect of the home or yard that requires an added decorative touch. For example, many two-story and three-story custom homes are built with second story patios and rooftop areas that are characterized by a high level of linearity and symmetry. These attributes can be magnified by taking a traditional garden style—such as Italian or Mediterranean—and adapting its form and proportion along more modern lines.

Similarly, more organic lawns will need gardens that add color with flowering plants, and contribute a sense of vibrancy to front and back yards. The degree of color and variety in these gardens will depend entirely upon such factors as the size and proportions of the house, the color of its façade, the materials used to build the home and other outdoor structures, and the number of trees within the yard which by their very presence demand something of a more organic design sensibility as a support element.

Modern garden design ideas such as the ones described in this article can only be developed by licensed landscaping architects who understand the complexities inherent to a very challenging style where organic priorities are almost exclusively determined by inorganic ones, and where garden installation and proportion are predicated on manmade geometry and exterior forms.

Modern Water Fountains

Modern architecture and landscaping rely heavily on geometry to convey abstract ideas. The intention is to create a world of thought by combining and morphing basic designs in new patterns that are clearly human in origin. Water fountains in these landscapes must support this intention with a clear departure from their traditionally ornamental appearance. Modern water fountains tend to feature either an emphasis on circular forms or sharp angles that support the eclectic elements of modern home design and suggest an altered reality based purely in the mind of man.

The most important thing to realize about modern water fountains is their absolute importance to contemporary landscaping. They are never used as secondary elements in such a setting. Instead, these fountains are central features to any modern landscape design. They are typically built in front yards to introduce the geometric themes of home architecture. In back yards, they are frequently constructed as central elements of custom patios, being built directly into the concrete, limestone, or stonework itself. Modern landscapers tend to avoid building these fountains too close to vegetation, and deliberately integrate them either directly into hardscapes, or construct them adjacent to hardscapes. Sometimes they are also built on the sides of walls in the framing area between the patio and the garden, although the structure and water itself even in these settings is separate from the organic elements of the design.

It may seem strange to many people that modern landscapers would deliberately avoid separating water from vegetation and instead make it a central feature of hardscape design. In order to understand why this is done, we have to pause for a moment and think about the very nature of modern design. Unlike other forms of design which rely heavily on materials and patterns taken directly from nature, modern landscaping intentionally seeks to depart from nature’s boundaries by establishing forms and patterns that are quite often stark, abstract, or downright shocking to the eye. This is done to emphasize the complexities of human thought processes and the often jumbled emotional states that lie buried within the subconscious mind beneath the surface levels of thought. Water has always been a symbol for spirituality or unconscious emotion, so it makes both practical and aesthetic sense to integrate its presence into a design style whose purpose is an exploration of consciousness itself.

Building these fountains separate and apart from gardens and vegetation further helps to promote the ideal of individuation. What was once a free-flowing and universal symbol that existed without boundaries now appears contained and limited in man-made geometric forms and structures of concrete and glass. Not only is this theme reinforced by the position of the fountain, but also by the material from which it is built. Modern landscapers normally select a material whose texture are exceptionally smooth and deviates from the traditional appearance of stone. Most water fountains designed in this style will consequently look shiny, translucent, or dull, depending on what most appropriately compliments surrounding elements. Lighting is a key element, both within a modern water fountain and around its exterior form. This allows it to be seen at any time, day or night, and further punctuates its significance after sunset, when it is often the most visible element on the property other than the home itself.

Contemporary Backyard Design

Contemporary backyards follow the same mentalist and minimalists design principles as contemporary front yards. There is a de-emphasis on Nature itself, with architecture and human design being emphasized as the preeminent elements of the landscape. Contemporary backyards work to both extend the themes of home architecture into the landscape. They also work to reflect the basic geometric designs latent in the aesthetic of the home itself, shaping structures, minimalist plantings, and hardscapes into patterns congruent to homeowner mindset, values, and lifestyles.

Vegetation is maintained at minimalist proportions in a contemporary backyard. This is not to say that these landscapes are completely barren. Quite the opposite is true. Landscapes tend to feature a significant amount of greenery, but the aesthetic of the greenery itself is markedly different from what we typically see in the average backyard. There is a distinctive emphasis on color and a deliberate shaping of form to match human structures. Plants are trimmed to keep them close to the ground to make them look less organic. In most contemporary backyards, this practice creates the impression that Nature is a frame to human development, design, and construction.

Contemporary backyards are very often linked to art and art collecting. The contemporary design itself is very eclectic and admittedly not for everyone. Aficionados of this aesthetic tend to be people with a personal passion for art. Many are professional artists, art collectors, or art consultants themselves who want a home and a landscape that reflects their personal tastes and values. Most of these people prefer to decorate their backyards with abstract sculptures and three-dimensional forms that work to extend their private collections into public space. Outdoor displays of art are also emblematic of profession and personal mindset, and help to further distinguish a particular property as a direct extension of the consciousness of the individual owner.

Perhaps the most noticeable feature in a contemporary backyard is the emphasis on strong forms. While contemporary design is admittedly abstract in many ways, this is not to say that form is abandoned or that objects themselves are unrecognizable. Instead, the intention behind most contemporary art of any kind is to combine basic geometric patterns and morph the conglomerate image into a new form independent of those that exist in Nature itself. This emphasizes human intention and deliberate action as key contributors to the final outcome, and reinforces the ideal of human supremacy over Nature. Nature has to be shaped in a contemporary backyard, not done away with.

This is often done by contrasting one element against another in order to create a sense of sharp deviation between concepts. Human consciousness is multi-dimensional, so combining contrasting design patterns throughout the landscape works to express the complexities of both conscious and unconscious forces within the mind. Strong angular lines and perfect arcs are often used in patio design, custom hardscape construction, and the building of boundary and decorative walls that reflect the form and aesthetic of the home. Gravel is heavily used both as a substitute for lawn grass as well in contemporary backyards, providing of contrasting shades of light and darkness, or even absolutes of black and white. Trees can measure a variety of heights, but the limbs of most trees are deliberately trimmed in order to give them a clearly sculpted shape that better supports the emphasis on human structure and design.

Contemporary Front Yard Design

Contemporary front yard design is more subservient to home architecture than other forms of landscaping. Contemporary homes emphasize are often very abstract in design and suggest a stripping down of reality to its most basic geometric and linear components. Front yards around such a house must reflect these patterns of form and movement in order to support the attitude on Mentalism characteristic of all contemporary design and art.

Contemporary front yard design does not concern itself much with the beauty of Nature and outdoor structures. In contemporary front yard landscaping, all elements, including organic ones, must support the proportions and aesthetics of the home. Nature is more of a backdrop to the design build of human engineering and living space. This deliberate emphasizes Man’s unique relationship to Nature as someone who can shape the environment with conceptual forms that have no direct correlation to concrete patterns in Nature. This is why we often see contemporary art take a basic geometric shape, such as a quadrilateral, deliberately distort its dimensions, and then combine it with one or more forms to extend geometry into multi-dimensional space.

The intention in contemporary home architecture is to project such a mindset that is highly individual to the homeowner. Eclecticism is almost mandatory for this type of design build to be successful. Many owners of these homes work in the architectural, design, or fine arts community themselves. Their houses are expressions of both lifestyle and profession. This leaves little room, in most instances, for an exploration of the beauty of Nature as a realm to be enjoyed in its own right. Natural elements that are useful to humanity are reshaped into new forms that reflect aspects of human thought and unconscious forces of emotions. Front yard design in front of such a house will often lack the typical emphasis on foliage we seen in traditional landscapes. Instead functions like an organic frame for an obviously human form that centers the landscape on a sense of evolutionary preeminence.

In this sense, vegetation is completely subservient to human design and often only exists in contemporary front yards as supportive elements for the home, outdoor decorative sculpture, exterior buildings, and modernesque hardscapes, seating areas, and pathways. Gravel, concrete, and rock tend to overshadow even the presence of trees in these landscapes, with gardens, hedges, and special plantings being used only establish linear direction or build perimeters around areas of interest, entertainment, or decoration.

Gardens in contemporary front yards are very minimalist in comparison typical garden design styles. This is not to say that tradition is completely abandoned when we install a garden in front of a contemporary home. However, the traditional styles that emphasize natural beauty must be significantly altered or combined into new patterns in much the same way that home architecture uses the distortion and combination of basic geometry to create new pattern rooted in the abstract realm above and beyond concrete reality.

Contemporary water fountains

Contemporary water fountains have a look and feel that is au courant and timeless, innovative and stylish. In general, contemporary design means spare and simple geometries arranged in a pleasing, functional way. This design style uses dramatic shapes to create a point of view that is both natural and fluid. We believe these descriptors apply to contemporary water fountains, too.

With contemporary water fountain and garden design, the focus tends to be on scale in contrast to the axial relationships commonly found in formal landscape designs. In a modern landscape design, the designer’s hand is typically very evident. Perhaps you will notice that the boundaries between areas of color, textures and shapes are undefined. Conversely, you may find the opposite true with sharply drawn lines. Composition and color ignite an emotional response. It is that juxtaposition—linear and non-linear, hard and soft, energetic and restrained—that is the essence of modern landscape design.

Exterior Worlds specializes in creating one-of-a-kind fountain designs that will not only enhance your property’s value, but will also provide you, the homeowner, with the 24 hour pleasure of moving, soothing, beautifully-lit water. With our contemporary water fountain designs, we want to point out that modern design techniques do not have to imply a high-tech look. For instance, you can make use of horizontal and vertical planes to create a modern sculpture effect and then let your other landscaping choices, like materials, color and plantings, provide a warm, welcoming feel.

We also encourage our clients to remember that, more than with any other type of fountain design, it is imperative that the modern style blends and complements the architecture of the home and existing landscape. Otherwise, the imagery is too jarring.

Concrete, steel, metals and glass are good material choices within the modern landscape design. In some of our designs, we have left the materials, such as stone, metal, plastics, steel and glass, in a raw or exposed state. The resulting beauty is a metaphor of nature and humans working together to create something artful—for instance, the way steel rusts to a warm, burnt patina.

In particular, concrete has won top honors in the contemporary garden design lexicon, primarily due to its hardiness and malleability. Its cool, gray color fits perfectly into the sparse detailing found in this style. If you use concrete in your contemporary water fountain design, you can extend that material theme by using concrete in a simple garden structure or as the flooring of your patio design.

As with all outdoor water fountains, lighting can be used to heighten a fountain’s extant loveliness and liveliness. We actually think lighting is critical for the full enjoyment of your investment in a water fountain, just as proper landscape lighting brings your entire landscape architecture to full fruition.

Exterior Worlds delivers landscape solutions that are tailored especially to meet your needs and desires. Further, we pride ourselves on our commitment to the customer and to excellence. Therefore, all of our designs are custom-made—nothing is pre-fabricated. Our goal is to create a special atmosphere in your landscape design, one that is design conscious, polished and impeccable.

Modern Outdoor Lighting

The purpose of modern outdoor lighting is to place an emphasis on architecture in such a manner as to create a sense of living outdoors. Modern outdoor lighting is effect oriented, not function oriented. It is as if the feeling of being inside has been removed from the home interior and placed around structures and gathering spots around the yard to create an outdoor living experience. Selective illumination is then placed around trees and gardens to differentiate the organic nature of outdoor space from the more sterile and cerebral elements of the interior. This has to be done very selectively, however, so as not to undermine the modernesque feelings we are trying to create.

Showcasing the architecture of the home itself is top priority in a modern outdoor lighting design. The house is obviously the first thing people see when they enter the property. No matter what is done on the landscape that surrounds it, the house defines the experience of being on that property by virtue of its size and function. It is the largest and most dominant feature on the landscape, and it is represents the most personal and private elements of human life. Each house has certain features that distinguish it from neighboring residences. These features tend to give the house a life of its own, and they tend to attract homeowners who feel these designs reflect their own personalities and lifestyles.

The modern outdoor lighting expert understands the importance of home architecture and knows how to find these structural keynotes that work as the basic points of definition for the entire structure’s design. These elements must be illuminated at night to maintain the position of defining prominence that they hold during the day. In order to do this properly, landscape architects must walk 360 degrees around the house, noting these features from a number of vantage points to find the highest points of power to illuminate. When the survey is complete, they document their findings in the landscaping plan, and then contract a professional lighting firm to handle the installation.

The equipment installed in modern outdoor lighting should ideally be manufactured in the United States and warranted for at least 3-5 years against equipment failure. It should be manufactured at specification grade—a level of quality that far surpasses retail home lighting fixtures. These fixtures can be installed by the outdoor lighting designer in one of two ways. They can be placed in relatively concealed locations to create patterns of apparently sourceless illumination over rooftops, balconies, and chimneys. Or, they can be installed as decorative elements in their own right that are mounted in clearly visible locations. In either instance, the angle at which the light is directed at the rooftop, balcony, window, or chimney is the critical issue here. Without proper angle of incidence, there will be glare that can spill over into neighboring properties, or there could be shadows that could hide your home in the night.

Once the home is lit, a circle of light expands outward into the landscape. Public gathering places like pools and patios are always given special attention in modern outdoor lighting. With the right lighting design, a pool will become a mirror to the home, and its patio will become a new form of living room, punctuated by anything from decorative lamp posts that stand like sentinels around its perimeter to pool of artificial moonlight cast by mercury vapor lights around the bottoms of nearby trees. Ornamental landscape features like statuary and fountains are also given special treatment in modern outdoor lighting. Because they are artistic creations, they contribute a powerful sense of a truly human living experience that is definitively lived outside.

At the same time, the landscape designer has to balance the modern sensibility with a lighting design that pays homage to the natural world that surrounds these islands of comfort. Many times, bamboo, Japanese yew, and larger boxwoods can be planted near a garden patio, outdoor fireplace, fire pit, or Zen garden patio. Modern outdoor lighting experts can turn scenes into outdoor living rooms that further bring the indoors to the outdoors, the comforts of the home to the diversity and freedom of the yard.

Contemporary patio design

Contemporary patio design is one of the most unique and dynamic elements of contemporary landscape design. It offers more opportunity for expansion and integration with other landscaping elements than do other types. Planters, fountains, retaining walls, and even gardens can be integrated into the physical structure and basic form of a contemporary patio.

Creating unique patterns in stonework is one way to differentiate contemporary patio design from more traditional forms. These stones can be cut in all sorts for shapes, provided that the linear and angular elements that constitute them appear in such a way as to create the immediate impression of a man-made element. With few exceptions, this means symmetrical cuts of stone and deliberate patterns of symmetry should be followed throughout the hardscape. Any irregularities will make stonework appear to be more random and thus more closely resemble rock formations found in nature. One of the most popular contemporary patio designs is a linear stone patio made with rectangular cuts of stone that run across the ground and up the sides of a stone wall. Smaller patios that do not have retaining walls may be built of blocks that are cut like perfect squares, or they can be made of one or more circles with radii that divide the hardscape into equal proportions.Contemporary patios can also consist of unique brick designs. Some may think of brick as a material used exclusively in more traditional and historical forms. This is not necessarily the case. There are a number of brick elements that can be varied to create a very contemporary look and even texture for the patio design. Color selection is perhaps the most important of these. Red brick is the standard image most people picture when they think of a brick structure. A completely different color, such as a unique shade of white or gray, will often be all that is needed to create a more contemporary sense. Grout details can also be varied in special, proprietary ways to create patterns of avant garde artistry between bricks. At the same time, bricks can be cut or sanded with sharp, clean lines that remove the oven-baked appearance we typically visualize. Sometimes a contemporary patio design can be created out of bricks laid down in a pattern that is based on something traditional, such as the running bond pattern, but that has a deep break between the rows or a sharp deviation in the direction of linear movements.

Concrete is the most common material used in contemporary patio design. There are many ways to finish the surface of concrete to make it appear more abstract, refined, or chic. Broom finish concrete uses linear parallel lines to create a sense of movement in much the same way that linear stonework does. However, this type of concrete appears much more modern and is often more apropos to homes with contemporary architecture based on principals of minimalism, stark angularity, and an emphasis on large windows. In other contemporary homes, this principle of minimalism extends throughout the landscape. Vegetation is replaced by outdoor artwork, stonework, and patios whose design functions as a reflection of the deliberately inorganic, intellectual elements of the landscape. Concrete in these places is often toned down with no sheen on its surface. This makes it absorb light instead of reflecting so that it will more suitably compliment stepping stone paths, decorative rock formations, gravel beds, and abstract sculptures. In still other instances, we will build a contemporary-style patio immediately adjacent to a living room or family room with exceptionally large windows and a sliding glass door that permits immediate transition from indoor living space to outdoor living space. For this type of patio, we can lay down concrete blocks in segmented rows and columns that allow for Spartan plantings of vegetation in between them, or we can remove some of the blocks for plantings of trees and gardens.

It is not so much what materials or forms are used to create the hardscape, nor is it a matter of how many of these additional features are integrated into the design. Rather, what makes defines the contemporary style regardless of what feature is actually being built (be it a home, a garden, or a landscape itself) is the combination of geometric angles and shapes in a manner that is instantly recognizable as the work of mathematics, and consequently the uniquely human faculty of Mind that is able to measure, segment, and create relationships between the abstract.