Landscape design - Terra Incognita

/ Landscape /
Landscape designer Lyudmila Beloded will talk about a competent approach to the issue of the formation of space around architectural objects and the prospects that such an approach opens up for designers, urban planners and ordinary residents in the new section of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA. The director and founder of the Beloded Landscaping bureau will share real cases, examples from practice, and the experience of world trendsetters in the field of urban landscaping. To dive into the topic — intro with the author.

Lyudmila Beloded, landscape designer, director and founder of the BELODED LANDSCAPING bureau

The work of an architect and a landscape designer in tandem can bring amazing results. Talent collaboration is one of the most progressive methods of creating not just a single object, but the environment as a whole. I plan to dwell in detail on the methods that open the prospects of such cooperation. If architects work with stone, concrete, and metal, landscapers use living plants that develop, follow the change of seasons, react to the weather, environmental conditions, and compete for territory. And architects are often distrustful of such a poorly managed, changeable component.

Emotional Context

It is widely believed that plants can distort the idea of ​​the project, I even heard the phrase "you are stealing my facade." I do not argue, plants really sometimes behave expansively and drag the focus of attention. But after all, a competent landscape project can and even should emphasize architectural accents or hide undesirable technological and engineering details, for example, sewer hatches. Moreover, the flora can act as a protective cover for the facade, increasing its energy efficiency. Plants include the building in context, and sometimes they themselves create an ego. And most importantly, they participate in the formation of a human friendly environment - comfortable for a person. Today, this is an important aspect in urban planning.

Plants are a set of powerful tools that allow a landscape designer to highlight a soloing architecture

A person first of all perceives architecture emotionally, and plants are a universal way to simultaneously influence all of his senses: to give a visual, tactile, and even - unlike architecture - olfactory experience. At the disposal of a competent landscape designer, plants are a set of powerful tools that make it possible to highlight soloing architecture like a spotlight.

Yew berry, bonsai form. Private garden, Kyiv region, village Novoselki, 2015-2017. Design and implementation of BELODED LANDSCAPING

Ecological context

The ecological context is hidden behind the emotional message of green landscapes. Plants play one of the leading roles in the urban environment. They protect the streets from the heat, absorb rainwater, work as natural aerators and air filters. But in order for plants to "work", we must provide them with comfortable conditions for life. It is very painful to watch young, recently planted trees dying on the streets of Kyiv. For example, Khreshchatyk is a sad sight. Our foreign partners are surprised: "What kind of ecological catastrophe happened to you, what happened to these plants?"

However, this is just the result of an illiterate approach. Moreover, fatal mistakes are often made at the stage of assortment selection. Each serious nursery in the catalog has a section "To help the designer", with lists of trees and shrubs resistant to the conditions of the urban environment, to industrial emissions, to air and soil salinity. It is not difficult to choose plants that withstand even reagents used on roads in winter. But for some reason, the employees of our zelenstroys do not pay attention to this at all. And if we were talking only about common plants! Sometimes rare, adult specimens, the cost of which starts at thousands of euros, die.

The emotional message of green landscapes hides an ecological context in which plants play one of the leading roles

When it comes to expensive planting material that was specially bought abroad and brought to Ukraine so that the streets and parks of our cities look modern and European, then the responsibility of gardeners, the technology of planting and care must also be European. It is absolutely unacceptable to plant a plant in old soil and naively expect it to bloom magnificently and rapidly develop.

I assume that utilities cannot send their employees abroad to a seminar, the participation in which costs under 2 thousand. euros per week. But there is an opportunity to get a consultation from a landscape designer in Ukraine. For example, we participate in conferences, seminars and exhibitions in different European countries at least 3-4 times an hour.

international experience

We have just returned from Nuremberg. Every 2 years in September, the GaLaBau exhibition is held there - one of the largest international events devoted to trends in the design of urban green open spaces. This time, many companies were presented that specialize in the arrangement of seats in the city. It is not enough to simply dig a hole the size of a lump of earth. We have to prepare fresh soil, set up an irrigation system, lay an aeration tube underground so that the plant can breathe.

If you have seen trees in European cities that seem to grow directly from the pavement, keep in mind that landscapers first carefully created the conditions for them! In our country, most of the time, methods of urban landscaping are thoughtlessly copied, completely disregarding maintenance technologies, and trees inevitably die. A tree from a good nursery has a reserve of strength, but this reserve will last for a maximum of an hour, then the plant will get sick, suffer for another couple of years and inevitably die. But don't we design the shape of our streets and parks for just an hour or three? It is necessary to talk about it.

It is necessary to foresee the development of living, green architecture in advance, otherwise all kinds of problems are inevitable

Another common mistake in our country is when trees with a potentially powerful crown are planted close to the facades. I encountered the fact that trees that grow up to 30 m in height and have a crown of almost the same diameter are planted 10 m from the building. Or they use plants with an aggressive root system, which, in conditions of water and air deficit, blow up asphalt and communications — sycamores, for example.

And that's not all - urban trees need regular and competent pruning. Everyone probably paid attention to the street lighting lanterns, which do not illuminate anything, or street signs, which neither drivers nor pedestrians notice, because the lanterns and signs are hidden by the branches of an overgrown tree. That is, already at the stage of selection, it is necessary to understand that if you do not foresee the development of living, green architecture, then problems are inevitable.

Azalea Japanese Diamant; black pine, bonsai form. Private estate, Kyiv region, village Plyuty, 2015-2017. Design and implementation of BELODED LANDSCAPING

A separate topic is the interaction of urban planners with foreign trendsetters in the field of landscape design and design of open spaces. In international practice, the following scenario is accepted: invited foreign architects offer a master plan and a conceptual solution for the organization of territories, vertical planning, leveling and describe the plants, indicating the type, shape of the crown, size and color of the foliage. But further, local specialists are already implementing the project according to the working drawings. This is not a question of economy, this is common sense. Local landscapers thoroughly studied the peculiarities of the climate, soil and atmospheric conditions. For example, they understand that in order to create a "Mediterranean landscape" in our latitudes, it is unacceptable to plant the Italian pine Pinus pinea. It can easily be replaced by Pinus nigra - some of its forms have the same "Mediterranean" habit, but tolerate winter well in Ukraine. A similar approach — the joint work of local specialists under the control of a foreign supervisor — makes it possible to implement high-budget projects with the planting of adult plants that almost immediately give shape, volume, and organize space.

An equally interesting and relevant topic is the creation of indoor gardens. We have examples of implementation of recreational zones and tropical gardens in atriums, and this is a separate fascinating story. I also plan to touch on the topic of prospective interaction between landscape designers and nurseries — after all, sometimes architects create a building project based on the image of a special, unusual tree. And, of course, I will share my experience and impressions gained during international seminars and exhibitions.

I would like our project on the PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA platform to allow architects, urban planners, private customers and landscape designers to develop a common language and guidelines for successful collaboration.