The garden designer: designing a room in the open air

The art of designing the outdoors

Until around the 1960s, it was practically unthinkable to call an architect for a home project; today, instead, it’s almost indispensable. Why, then, can’t we do the same thing also with gardens and terraces? Whether it’s an outdoor space of large dimensions or a city terrace, a professional landscape designer will able to transform it into an outdoor space of great impact which is also easy to maintain. Here are four good reasons to turn to a green professional. The garden designer is a professional figure who can help us to take the right decision. Let’s see together how.

Who is he and what does a garden designer do?

Simplifying greatly, the garden designer is a professional that designs and develops gardens, not necessarily private and not only ornamental. The skills required to do this work range from botany to geology, from the history of art to knowledge about products, as far as knowledge of areas considered “cold”, such as making estimates, structural calculations, mathematics. The green designer is certainly a creative artist, with considerable experience and skills, but is also furnished with innate good taste and, most of all, familiarity with the landscape, plants and nature in general. He knows perfectly how to “tame” his creativity and put it at the service of a practical and defined project.

Giving shape to ideas

The best result is obtained when there is a continuous dialogue between us and the garden designer. The project is not created from today to tomorrow, but through a number of steps: from an interview to understand expectations and desires, from project drafts to the definitive design. A relationship of trust needs to be established with the designer, in which we can count on a reference person for all creative and development aspects of the work… and with whom to share the honours and obligations! The problem is that the garden is a very individual expression, and the skill of a garden designer lies in the ability to interpret the customers’ tastes and advise them in such a way as to obtain an external space that reveals their personality and which fits in with the surrounding environment. We need to discuss with him the style and the plants and the desired final result. At times, the client is very competent and has a clear idea about the vegetation that they wish to include in the design, at other times this choice is made exclusively by the professional.

Let’s take care of nature

Depending on how much time one can dedicate to the garden, the garden designer will introduce plants adapted to that location, taking account of the space, position, who will deal with the maintenance, and other factors. It would not be wise to use certain type of plants that require too much care and attention if the person who will be responsible for maintenance is the owner of the house with perhaps only a couple of hours free every week. What is often overlooked is the final dimension of a plant. It often occurs that after five/seven years the plants have grown too much and we end up with a jungle rather than a garden. The designer, instead, has a long-term view of the project and the growth of the flora.

Harmony between spaces

Unfortunately, the surface areas at our disposal are increasingly smaller than those of the past. As a result, it’s essential that every space is well thought out and used to the fullest. The garden designer, in fact, must create a project which is tailor-made, taking account of demands, but also limits. If not well thought out, the green area could become only a burden in terms of resources and, worse still, not used. There are not only green areas in a garden, the reason for which the designer could make use of other professionals to complete the project. The sunbathing area, swimming pool, walkways, the part dedicated to hospitality with tables and chairs: all these spaces must fit well together; only in this way can we fully enjoy our outdoor spaces.

Making our projects special

The choices of finishes for our outdoor spaces are very important for creating a setting that enhances our garden designer’s whole project. Ceramiche Coem develops collections dedicated to the outdoors which not only take inspiration from nature, but dialogue directly with it, integrating perfectly with the surroundings thanks to the material effect. ‘English Stone’, for example, reinterprets English limestone, and in this way the ‘Limestone’ stoneware becomes modern and particularly brilliant, bringing out the elegance of the original material. Those who love the stone effect, also when reinterpreted, cannot help but love the ‘Sassiepietre’ collection characterised by the graphic intrusion of elements of various origins cemented by calcareous material, with great depth and movement. If, instead, we prefer a marble effect, to make our outdoors even more elegant and sophisticated, we can opt for the ‘Touch Stone’ collection, a fascinating marble-effect stoneware inspired by travertine stone. Bright, with a really special finish with expressive veins and warm nuances, it will be able to make our outdoor area unique. This collection is also available in the “VEIN” graphic version, which reproduces the reverse cutting of the slabs, in White, Gold, Grey and Brown, a truly special and innovative effect.