If you are not sure whether you need a landscape architect for a new or refreshed Waunakee and Middleton, WI areas outdoor design, learning the role of a landscape architect can help you make the best decision. The most pleasing landscape designs tend to use shapes and forms to create a harmonious aesthetic. See how landscape architecture blends form and function in a landscape plan.
The Role of a Landscape Architect
A landscape architect is a highly trained professional who understands the relationships of hardscape spaces like patios to planted areas. They know how to place certain outdoor features in direct sunlight and where to put features in a shady spot. The form consists of the spatial relationships of each part of your landscape while the function means how you want to use these areas.
A landscape architect can assess terrain challenges and weather patterns to create the outdoor spaces you want in your property design. Their vast experience and skill can produce award-winning designs that are a sight to behold and even better to experience.
Form and Function
Once you communicate your vision, a landscape architect can take each element and position it so movement among the spaces is easy and the look is dazzling. Landscape architects can be masterful at taking shapes, which are two-dimensional (squares, triangles, circles, and rectangles), and mixing them together so they work well and look appealing. Some examples are the height of a tall tree or the rectangular shape of a swimming pool.
They can also use forms, which are three-dimensional, like staggered heights of plants in a landscape bed or a water fountain that spills over landscape stone, to draw the eye and create visual interest.
Blending form and function can take artistic skill such as when they blend a rectangular gazing pool with a nearby circular paver patio accented by a curated planting bed. Together, these features are enticing and enhanced by the flow among them.
Decide Your Landscape Style
Something you will want to do before you meet with a landscape professional is to decide how you want your landscape to look. Do you lean toward symmetry in a landscape design where the repetition of shapes and forms is what draws your eye? Think about which photos capture your interest. Is it a custom driveway with a line of trees along the edge that makes you stop and look?
Or do you like the meandering look of curving paver walkways and free-form shrubs with big blooms? This can be a more organic landscape design that looks less planned and more natural.
Once you find what strikes your fancy, a landscape architect can take your outdoor areas and deliver the sort of look that you find beautiful, using form and function to add interesting details and useful hardscape spaces that can let you enjoy your landscape more fully.
