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We were contacted by a family that
had just moved into a home built in the 1960s. The house had
that classic “space age” look that was popular in the years that
America ran the Space Race with the Soviets. During this time,
architects envisioned a future where technology would eventually
create a better world, and where Nature would be more or less
replaced with human innovation. As such, the
contemporary landscape we developed for this home was rather
unique in terms of the typical projects we develop. It consisted
mainly of a concrete patio and a
custom fountain, but it had virtually no vegetation
incorporated into its design. This was due to the fact that the
homeowners had specifically requested an inorganic look and feel
to the landscape that compliment the right-angled geometry and
predominantly glass construction of the home.
The home was actually built in two linear wings that came
together in a sharp right angle, forming a natural courtyard of
sorts in the lawn. Since grass was something the homeowners
wanted to minimize, we converted this rectangular green space
into a
contemporary-style concrete patio. We decorated the patio by
making diagonal saw cuts in its surface. This had the effect of
extending the home’s sense of linear movement by creating
intersecting patterns of right angles that mirrored the right
angles formed by the house. Then, in the corner where the two
wings converged, we removed a rectangular portion of the patio
and laid down alternating white and black gravel in a
checkerboard of squares.
We added just a touch of greenery that lent some--but not too
much— of a sense of Nature to the patio and surrounding
landscape. We planted a solitary palm tree in the graveled
corner, and we placed a contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright planter
near one of the far patio corners. Just beyond both wings of the
home, we then built small, square planters out of stainless
steel edging. We planted Mondo grass in some of these squares,
and we filled the rest with moonstones to maintain the sense of
minimalism characteristic of custom, contemporary landscapes.
We then implemented the second phase of the landscaping project,
which consisted of the construction of a
highly customized fountain design. The intention in
constructing this element was two-fold. First the back of the
home had windows so large they looked more like sheer walls of
glass than typical windows. Adding a custom,
contemporary fountain to the center of the patio would
create a feature that would reflect off the glass during the
day, and compliment interior lighting when illuminated at night.
On a functional level, the fountain was also intended to provide
a special recreational area for the children, who loved to play
in the water, but who were too young to swim unsupervised in a
pool.
We decided that the best way to accomplish both tasks was to
custom-build a rectangular platform over the fountain jets that
could easily support the weight of multiple children. This
platform would have to be constructed with both a sturdy frame
and a permeable surface that would allow water to penetrate it
as it shot up into the air from the jets below. In order to
fulfill both functional and safety requirements, we custom
designed the fountain platform with two very unique materials.
First, we built a frame with very stainless steel bars that
would not rust. Then, we selected a very fine mesh made from
shredded steel wire that was folded over and over onto itself
until all sharp edges were gone. This made the steel feel more
like a sea grass rug than a piece of metal when we were finished
stretching it over the frame. The design worked beautifully, and
allowed part of the water to shoot straight up in streams, but
also produced a fine mist that added to the play element of the
fountain. To light our custom fountain, we then suspended
special luminaires just under its surface to enliven the streams
of water and fine sprays of mist that shot up into the night.
While contemporary patios are relatively common in the world of
landscaping, developing an entire
landscaping plan around almost exclusively inorganic
elements was something of a challenge. The key to our success in
this project lay in careful analysis of home architectural
elements, a correct interpretation of the spirit of the times in
which it was built, and an incorporation of the two into a
custom, contemporary fountain and
patio design reflective of the optimism and modernism of the
Space Age era.
For more the 20 years
Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's
fine neighborhoods.
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