Residential Design
Susan Small Landscape Architects
The brief was to design a setting for a new architect-designed house in suburban Blackmans Bay, south of Hobart.
The clients sought a low maintenance native garden suited to coastal conditions, with some raised beds suitable for growing vegetables and herbs. The landscape was intended to provide some privacy, but to retain key views from the house to the water beyond.
The site was one of the last blocks to be developed in a 1990s - 2000s subdivision, comprising mostly largish rendered masonry houses, surrounded by large areas of paved driveways, with gardens of gravel, Magnolia, Flax and Cordyline. Minimal remnant native vegetation is evident in this part of the subdivision most trees having been removed entirely during the early development or incrementally since.
We extended the brief to
- work with a wider range of native plants – from ‘endemic’ to ‘Australian native’;
- provide paths and space that allow greater access, for enjoyment as well as maintenance, around a very ‘tight’, steep site;
- selected ‘natural’ materials such as gravels for paths, boulders for retaining walls and stone steps to aid in softening the impact of the built form;
- collect and store about half the stormwater runoff for use on the site
- segued the garden space into the adjacent public coastal area by providing an interesting gate, simple transparent fencing and plantings on the boundary – rather than the alternative of a high retaining wall and opaque fencing.
more on this project (PDF)
