Landscape design and planning is essential for successful landscape development.
Landscape design and development planning will enable you to come up with the best solutions for your project. From establishing ‘the purpose’ of the project through to understanding specifics like the site’s slope and orientation – we help you rationalise effective outcomes and avoid mistakes before the installation begins. Once the objectives are clarified, they can then be interpreted into coherent site layout & masterplanning for longterm development.
Successful planning also aids fundraising & motivation, engagement & participation. A small investment in early design work will reap huge rewards over time.
Benefits of site planning:
- Find the most effective solutions
- Avoid costly mistakes
- Consider water flows and ponds
- Connect roads, paths and access routes
- Logical placement of buildings and features
- Active and passive zones
- Winter shelter, summer shade, evergreen and deciduous trees
- Signage and display
- Personalisation and artwork
These considerations allow us to plan for the evolution of a site over the long term. See below:
Enhancing the Sense of Place
This design work allows the transformation of a typical space into a place which has character and personality – the so called ‘Spirit’ or ‘Sense of Place’. It is this developing ambiance which makes places unique and special, particularly so for children, who develop affection and belonging to special places. As an example, see the pictures below of a site we developed in 2001, and how it has evolved since then. For more information, see the Harvington project.
Coherent and practical concept masterplans
Our concept masterplans are easily interpreted by professionals and local community members alike. With over 25 years experience, we bring a level of understanding and detail not often seen in other company’s concept development. We work out the ‘build’ of the landscape as we are designing it. This enables us to understand both practical and cost implications.
The iterative stages within the development of a concept masterplan design, see our process, ensure that your requirements and our recommendations are aligned and agreed at each stage. At every stage we add key details, potentially saving costs on further fees for detailed design or eliminating them altogether.
Initial sketch design to masterplan
The slider example shows the progression of landscape design and development for a secondary forest school site at Jack Hunt School. The sketches followed 2 site/client meetings. The sketches were presented, discussed and changes were made to accommodate client revisions. The finished masterplan is ideal for imparting the project to the wider school community and governors, for any potential planning requirements, and for guiding the physical installation. See Case Study…
Masterplanning for Parks, Councils and Visitor Sites.
The landscape design requirements for local parish sites can differ from those for destination sites and country parks. A number of prerequisites may be the same, such as walking & physical exercise, natural play, creating local nature reserves and facilities for ‘family get togethers’, dog walking, biodiversity habitat or space for mindfulness.
However, the detail of them can be very different. For example, local children that often play together have very different requirements to those visiting destination sites. They are more likely to want activities other than fixed play equipment, such as damming rivers, exploring the woods, building dens, scavenging, etc
In this example, a well laid woodland path is a sensory delight to be enjoyed at any time of year…
