The Six Courtyard Houses were designed by Ibarra Rosano Design Architects in Arizona.This archdaily.com article has images and plan views. I'm not familiar with the climate in Arizona. I must say that I wouldn't want to live in the landscape pictured for these houses. It's a bit.. stark and exposed.What was the thought process for it? "I would like there to be a big central platform viewable from every window in the house. Plus, three plants." heeheee. I kid! Or do I?I'm more of a Secret Garden' kinda gal. But I want to learn more about this starker more modern/contemporary style. This Pintrest Board has tons of great examples.Various design concept sketches.I need to pick one to develop further. 1, 6 or 2?
Neighborhood Walks - Moss Edition
Fun at Tilden Botanic Garden
I really love Tilden Botanic Garden. For one thing there are about one million little bridges. And there is just a pleasing variety of microclimates and fab plants.
On our last outing there we sat around and used nature to make some tiny, ephemeral art. The second one is a nudibranch or maybe a paramecium. I realize a botanic garden probably isn't the right venue for this but I did it anyway and it was pleasing.
Worm fence or Split-rail fence
We have to think about fencing quite often in landscape design. They serve to keep things in, to keep things out, delineate property, to screen views and maintain privacy.
“We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.”
But what is a worm fence, you ask? You will recognize it when you look at my pictures below. It’s a fence made from wood in a zip-zag pattern. I believe it is a mostly American type of fencing. I do wonder why the Americans did not employ the hedgerow as a barrier more often.
As you can see in the example below the worm fence does not need to use posts and instead alternates logs in that zig-zap pattern. I talked before about the serpentine brick wall and how it creates more stability than a straight brick wall, well the same applies to the worm fence.
Check out all these worm fences at Tilden Botanic Garden! In this case these fences are just trying to keep garden visitors from trampling the plants and straying off the path.
I found this book Between Fences in a used book store not too long ago. It is from an exhibit about fences at The National Building Museum (on view from 1996-1997). This is a very interesting book with chapters about worm fences, barbed wire fencing, hedgerows, picket fences, and more.
Oh! I should write a post about the stone walls of New England at some point (makes mental note).
Painting with plants
I am focusing in on plant color and texture right now.I have had the opportunity to visit the personal garden of the owners of Potomac Waterworks twice, once in the Fall and once in Spring. I mean, what a lovely garden! My inner 8 year old wants to live there with the fairies and unicorns and so does my outer 40 yr old. :)Not only is it a technically marvelous construction project but it is the most thoughtful and beautiful landscape painting I have ever stepped into.This is a watercolor painting I did based on a photo I took:
While there are many "rules" you can learn and follow around color and texture in the garden you really have to be an artist to accomplish this.
Hermit crab cityscapes
Okay, this contains many of my favorite things.Amazing tiny things!Small animal!3D printing!More miniature things!Art idea that most people would think, "What?! WHY?"
Artist Aki Inomata creates beautiful plastic shell for hermit crabs that are crafted into elegant cityscapes.You can watch a short video here.Reading articles about Ani's work led me to this article on Inhabitat about Maker Bot's Project Shelter and the shortage of hermit crab shells.
Accessible playgrounds in the Bay Area
I want all children to have access to playgrounds and nature. One of the main problems I see with accessible playgrounds is that the designers lose site of the whole nature part.How do we make sure playgrounds are inclusive of children of all abilities but still include all the the things kids need to play and learn?How can it REALLY be done? Not just following the letter of ADA compliance that result in playgrounds with no nature and too much hot plastic surfacing?I'm reading and thinking on this. Playgrounds can be crazy expensive. Natural elements might seem to imply too much risk, uncertainty and unrealistic upkeep needs. Why? And what to do?Is no playground better than a playground some kids can't access? Both scenarios are disheartening.Some interesting resources:Bay Area Accessible Playground Finderhttp://www.accessibleplayground.net/Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto, CA
Pretty Landscaping Tile
This garden is in East Oakland and thetiles are by http://www.handcrafttiles.com/
Eyes on the road!
Well, I didn't actually get into an accident while taking this picture and driving. I swear! I was stopped in traffic! I simple had to take a picture of this MONSTROSITY. Who decided on this as a good idea?
In case you can't tell, that is a concrete front yard with 4 holes for shrubs... a single shrub in each hole.I get that planting what looks like a steep slope could be daunting but think of the heinous amount of runoff this landscape is producing!This could so easily be solved with some hardy natives. Even just a nice carpet of ground hugging Arctostaphylos like Arctostaphylos uva-ursi would lessen run-off and be a fine weed barrier.
A hike down the street
Cute little Plectranthus ciliatus. This Plectranthus is a South African plant often used as a ground cover around here. It likes shade but wants a bit of sun to keep the awesome red/purple underside. It is more shrubby right here, is in part sun, part shade and seems to be thriving with little water and on a steep grade.This is our little road cut hike near our house. Actually, I can see the entrance to the path from my room RIGHT NOW. Mr. Who and I go there to inspect the state of things fairly often. Snacks can be the best part of a hike when you are 5. Especially if you have carried them in your very own backpack.
Boston Children's Museum
This picture is taken out the window of the Boston Children's Museum while waiting for the tour of the authentic Japanese house (very cool, btw).
I watched the painted hopscotch game get used by several passers-by. There was also a great paver maze at the entrance to the museum. I love using the ground plane as a design element, it's something that kids especially notice and can't resist reacting to.
SF airport - New Terminal 2
Anyone else been to the new(ish) SFO Terminal 2? Kudos to all who made it happen, srsly. It was like traveling on a fluffy cloud filled with unicorns, sushi and coffee.Right after going through security the first thing that hit my eye was the 'Yoga Room'. Say what?Then, tons of art. filtered water stations. sushi.You can read all about the art here.ANDAn indoor play area for kids. SQUEEE!Just that fact that an airport would admit that kids might be actual humans who deserve having their needs met in public was kind of shocking and, obviously, refreshing.
It was a tad spartan but such a great idea. One of the coolest features was the Butterfly Wall built and designed by Charles Sowers.
It had some fun climbing elements with an airiness that I assume was designed it to it so that parent's wouldn't freak out when they couldn't see their child.
Please pardon the terrible blurry pics. I was juggling like twelve carry-ons and a coffee.
Berkeley Adventure Playground
What is an adventure playground?I think of them as a free form playground built by kids and the grownups with them. It's a space where the way kids play hasn't been decided for them already, they get to see a bunch of raw materials and see the possibilities and create their own spaces.They get wood and nails and discarded playground equipment and rope and old boats and whatever other cool stuff the staff can find or is donated. And the kids can use it however they want.I feel lucky to live in an area with an Adventure Playground, you can read about it's hostly here. It's such a cool idea and we have been taking my son since before he could walk. There is something for everyone!You have to earn tools and paint by helping clean up or gathering up old nails. Once J. could walk he loved to collect nails with a magnet fishing pole in order to trade the nails for paint.Here's J as an almost or maybe just 1 year old sitting in a boat filled with sand. Neat!This is an ever evolving instrument. It's got drums and harps and tons of other things that make great noises.I wish I could figure out how to embed this video of my son getting bonked by a hanging float.He is at about 2 years freaking out with excitement at some junk hanging around. At about 28 seconds he gets bonked with the hanging rescue float.Hiii-larious!The last time we went T. helped him build an airplane out of scrap wood.More awesomeness. In this picture you can see not only a a cool boat in the foreground but several boats filled with plants in the middle and then the oh so cool zipline in the background. Kids line up for this over and over and it's so fun to watch them. You must be 6 in order to ride it. I'm not sure if J. will want to!
Indian Rock
We went off to explore Indian Rock in Berkeley this week. It did not disappoint.J is just now 5 and somehow, once we climbed to the top of the rock (using the awesome stairs cut into the side), I was REALLY nervous having him up there. I like to pride myself on not being a helicopter mom but in this case I just kept picturing him sliding down to his doom and I couldn't hack it. I made us go back down. There was plenty of scope for imagination around the lower parts of the rock.We established our forts...
And attacked!
Foolishly I did not look up the rock before hand and so could not spout knowledgeably about the geology. Check the wikipedia article or this post from the awesome Oakland blog Oakland Geology. Rhyolite! Neat!We had to leave because I was getting grumpy (I've been grumpy a lot lately) and I had to pee (this park lacks a bathroom making it totally unpractical for me) and we had to go to the store. We'll be back to explore the more north side of the park later though definitely! Also, need to bring more kids so they can like play capture the flag or something!
This garden is tight
Is that the best graffiti or what? I love that it was clearly a teenager carrying around a paint marker for graffiti, enjoying the garden and commenting on it. It's such a social thing to do, really. It reminds me of the very old graffiti in ancient temples.There was an NPR article... let me find it... here it is. An Archeologist quoted in the article describes ancient graffiti as, "a spontaneous verbal outburst" that adds intimacy to the historical record of the ancient Levant and Mesopotamia". She also describes graffiti as, "intimate, vocal and spontaneous".Awesome! That is totally how I feel even about crappy graffiti.Someday I want to try moss graffiti, there is a good tutorial for moss graffiti here. This would also be a fun outdoor project for older kids!Anyway, this garden IS tight and made even more so by the fact that is is a guerrilla garden. This garden is on an embankment by the road near my house that Frank Snapp has been gardening in (he also gardens on the median strips along this road) for many years. He uses natives and Mediterranean plants that require little to no upkeep. The garden is wild, just the way I like it. I haven't met Frank but I hope to this summer.I'll blog more about some of the plants in this garden and how J and I 'hike' there.