Berkeley Cottage Garden
A new cottage built to serve as an office/in-law unit behind the client's primary residence required a landscape solution that would serve to connect the two structures while screening views of neighboring houses and provide functional spaces for relaxation --all within a 750 square foot area. Subdividing the ell-shaped space with a grove of Coral Bark Maples allowed for the creation of two distinct areas--one featuring a rock fountain outside the cottage entrance, the other formed by a stone seat wall that does double duty as a retaining wall for the earthen tailing left over from the cottage construction. Linking the spaces and providing a unifying element is a red-hued sandstone path, whose color is reflected in the Maple bark as well as in the ceramic contained glaze.
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| Design: Ted Vorster/Four Dimensions Landscape
Albany Entry Courtyard
The front yard of this Albany, California home was typical of many of the yards in the area with a mass of mature Juniper bordering a concrete walk leading straight to the front door. The client's request was for a yard with some degree of enclosure without shutting itself off from the street and surrounding neighbors. Seeking to visually expand the small space while addressing the enclosure issue and at the same time taking advantage of the grade change across the front edge of the property, I devised a concept that divided the yard into a pair of nested ells consisting of a raised planter and a paved surface leading indirectly to the front door. A diagonal line of sight to the entry is achieved by placing the steps at the corner opposite the door, and the bottom of the ell formed by the raised planter helps create the illusion of greater depth to the yard. A low wall extending from the house was stuccoed and painted to match the house, thus in effect projecting the architecture of the house into the yard which serves to further blur the boundary between house and yard.
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