Why Landscape Architecture Affects you More Than you Might Think

Landscape architecture is focused on designing outdoor spaces that are safe and usable, look good and positively contribute to our physical environment.

Landscape architects plan, design and manage the construction of exterior environments. They design bustling inner-city spaces and neighbourhood parks through to home gardens and large commercial developments. They also lead the strategic restoration of natural and heritage landscapes and public open spaces.

A good landscape architect must factor many things into a design. Among these are achieving a good balance of climatic factors, such as natural light and wind, with the promotion of social wellbeing, ensuring safe recreational spaces and efficient flows of movement.

It takes a skilful combination of science and creativity to bring balance between a built environment and its natural surrounds. By understanding human behaviour and spatial design, landscape architecture creates purposeful, enjoyable places that enrich the lives of the people who use them.

The benefits of good landscape architecture:

First impressions count: Of course the aesthetic and functionality of a site’s buildings matter. But people enter from the outside, so really the first thing they notice is the exterior environment. At the ground level, the surroundings play an integral part in that first encounter.

• Great value for money: Landscape design and construction is usually not the largest cost when building a house or developing land. It is, however, one of the best investments you can make as the open space and exterior environment are key components of how the house or development look when completed. This can directly impact the final monetary value and may also spread to raise the value of surrounding properties.
• Function and beauty: Good landscape architecture balances the need for good aesthetic value with the right amount of practicality and functionality. Achieving a good balance between these factors is important, as designs that are too utilitarian or too ‘frilly’ often create spaces that people are reluctant to use.
• Ease of maintenance: A good landscape architect will always factor in the ongoing upkeep needs and costs to align with your budget and requirements.
• Preservation and restoration: As well as creating new places, landscape architects work to manage and conserve/restore natural and heritage landscapes through strategic planning. Engaging a landscape architect for your project means you are helping ensure that a piece of ecological or cultural heritage can be protected, preserved, or enhanced for following generations.
• Investing in the greater good: We are serious about minimising our impact on the earth, and making things better. At the residential garden scale, we work with a team of suppliers who offer sustainably sourced and produced options for both hardscape materials and plants. At the larger scale, we apply our ecological understanding and design skill to restore waterways and plant communities so they can once again support biodiverse native fauna and fauna.

Landscape architecture for positive social impact

Landscape architects are passionate about creating solutions that improve health and wellbeing. Along with creating places and spaces that achieve commercial goals, they design successful open spaces at the heart of thriving communities. More and more evidence suggests that well-designed outdoor spaces foster more connection with nature, which enriches human physical and mental wellbeing. Research from Arhaus University in Denmark found children who grow up with green space around them have significantly less risk of developing mental-health problems later in life. Here in New Zealand, University of Canterbury analysis of the activities of 12,500 New Zealanders found they were less likely to be overweight if they lived close to a park. These studies reinforce the importance of carefully considered landscape design.

Our experienced landscape architects work together with our land and site development specialists in-house. Our solutions are comprehensive, considered, and focused on delivering you a smarter project outcome. Get in touch today to start designing your next dream project.