This modern garden in Adelaide fits perfectly with the home’s minimalist architecture
Having recently renovated and extended their home in an inner suburb of Adelaide, the owners looked to Amanda Balmer of WAX Design to help them design a series of integrated outdoor spaces that would complement the look of their newly remodelled residence. Each garden zone was to vary in function and context yet respond to the strong architectural lines of the house in a cohesive way.
“The house has a very distinct architectural style that dictated the nature of the furnishings, fixtures and, of course, the garden design,” explains Amanda. “Inspiration was also drawn from the work of Italian garden designer Luciano Giubbilei, a favourite of the owners.” Luciano offers a modern take on the traditional Italian Renaissance garden, with lots of green–on-green planting to add depth and strong structural elements such as tree-lined avenues.
“In the rear garden, the pool and lawn areas maximise the change in level and create a centralised family activity zone separate from the shaded eastern garden and entertaining area,” says Amanda. “Granite forms a linking element, from the feature walls surrounding the pool area, clad in saw-cut granite, to the raised garden bed and seating wall around the perimeter of the property.
“The pool coping, pool steps and blade wall all have an off-form concrete finish, which helps in transitioning the facade of the building into the landscape and creates some clean, simple lines between the paved surfaces.”
The limited planting palette of varying greens was chosen to suit the owners’ minimalist aesthetic and respond to the architectural form of the residence. Says Amanda, “The layers of evergreen hedging include murraya, magnolia and viburnum, there are avenues of ornamental pear trees to the boundaries and a cluster of hibiscus in the pool planter.”
The new landscaping was also an opportunity for the owners to showcase some of the natural stone and paving products their business, Best Bricks & Pavers, specialises in. For example, Best large-format Urban pavers, in a lovely weathered finish, were used for the access paths around the property and for the swimming pool surrounds. Large-format Best granite pavers were used for the front entrance and on the floating steps leading up to the front door. For textural interest, granite cobblestones were used for the driveway.
“What we created for the owners is a sleek, contemporary garden that references the minimalist nature of the architecture and transitions these elements into the landscaped surrounds while still providing a functional, low-maintenance and family-friendly garden,” says Amanda.
Most importantly, it is a garden that is used on a regular basis by the family, which is the true sign of a design’s success. That said, it wasn’t just the owners who were impressed by this totally transformed landscape. So, too, were the judges of the 2013 Master Landscapers of SA Awards of Excellence who bestowed upon WAX Design top honours in the Design of Residential Landscape $150,000-$250,000 category.
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Photography by Simon Bills
Originally in Outdoor Design & Living Issue 35
