The Complete Garden Design Course - 4. The Process of Design
What you'll learn
- • Learn one of the essential skills of a garden designer - the process of garden design - which can be applied to gardens of all sizes and styles
- • This process is a step-by-step procedure that will take you from surveying a garden plot to the completed design
- • Discover how to survey a garden plot, create a survey plan and other methods of recording the features and qualities of a garden
- • Learn a systematic way of capturing the needs and aspirations of the garden users
- • Learn how to assess the design potential of a garden and how to create a strategy as a starting point for the design stage
- • Follow how the process is applied to a real garden design project from the first visit to the completed design, and then create your own design for the garden
Requirements
- No pre-existing skills are needed for this course.
- However it would be useful to have learnt the techniques taught in the earlier three courses in this series of courses titled 'The Complete Garden Design Course'.
- A download of the list of drawing equipment needed to undertake the design exercises is provided at the start of Survey section of the course.
Description
This course will teach you the process of garden design which is a well-recognised, step-by-step procedure that will take you from surveying a garden plot right through to the completed design. This process is one of the essential techniques of garden design which can be applied to gardens of all sizes and styles, and is used by professional landscape architects and garden designers to create beautiful gardens and outdoor spaces
The course will start by teaching you how to survey a garden plot, create a survey plan and the techniques of recording the features and qualities of a garden. This is followed by a look at some techniques of capturing the needs and aspirations of the garden users to create a design brief.
In the next stage, the survey and brief are brought together in the form of an analysis plan which illustrates the design potential of the garden. During this stage you will be taught the techniques of illustrating an analysis plan in diagrammatic form.
The process continues with the concept stage which uses the results of the analysis plan to create a strategy for the layout of the garden, and this strategy becomes the starting point for the design stage
Using demonstrations filmed from above a drawing board, the final part of the course follows every stage in the evolution of the design of the garden where the skills learnt in the earlier three courses are brought together to create a presentation standard plan of the completed design. The design is then critically assessed using the design principles and design considerations taught earlier in this series of courses and you will then be able to create your own design for the garden.
Each stage of the process is illustrated by how it has been applied to a recently completed real-life garden design commission. The presentation comprises more than 60 slides showing examples of garden design projects, images, sketches, plans and diagrams together with notes and bullet points summarising the main points of the commentary. In addition, seven exercises have been designed so you can pause the presentation and work through each exercise in your own time supported by download resources. In this way you can experience the stages of the design process for yourself.
This course has been written for anyone who wants to learn the skills and techniques of how to design original and beautiful gardens. You may be someone who is simply interested in the art of garden design or who wants to know how to design their own garden, or someone who is interested in starting a career in garden design, or a student studying garden design. Or you may be working as a gardener, a garden contractor, a garden designer or a landscape architect.
This course is the fourth in this series of courses under the heading of ‘The Complete Garden Design Course’. Taken together these four courses will give you a thorough grounding in the art of garden design so that by the end you will have learnt all the skills you will need to undertake your own garden design projects. However, while this course on the Process of Garden Design often refers back the earlier three courses, it can also be studied as a stand-alone course.
Who this course is for:
- This course has been written for anyone who wants to learn the skills and techniques of how to design original and beautiful gardens.
Instructor
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 296 Reviews
- 1,288 Students
- 4 Courses
Hi, my name is Henry Mead and I have been working as a garden and landscape designer for the past 40 years. After leaving school I worked as gardener for a couple of years and then enrolled on the MA course in landscape design at the University of Sheffield in the UK. I then worked in a number of landscape design offices in the UK and the US before taking my professional exams and becoming a chartered member of the Landscape Institute, the professional body of landscape architects in the UK.
By this time my wife and I and our two children had settled in south London. Next, I joined the team of landscape architects in the UK’s largest architectural firm based in London where I led landscape design teams working on a range of commissions many of which were honoured with national design awards. During this time I was fortunate enough to design a wide variety of gardens and open spaces in the UK and overseas. These included the redevelopment of the grounds of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, public parks in China, healing gardens for new hospital developments, private gardens, courtyards, roof gardens, winter gardens, playgrounds and sports grounds, wildlife gardens, school grounds and university campuses, water features, community gardens, public squares, plazas and streetscapes.
In addition to my professional work, for many years I have been tutoring graduates to prepare them for their professional exams to qualify as chartered landscape architects.
In recent years I have been concentrating on the design of private gardens and I am thoroughly enjoying the experience working collaboratively with private clients and becoming more closely involved in the details of design.
Alongside my work as a designer, I have become increasingly interested in the potential of teaching garden design as an on-line course, as a convenient and flexible option for individuals who may not be able to afford the expense or time to study full-time. This has led me to create this series of courses on garden design which draw upon the skills that I have learnt during my career.
My wife and I like to travel whenever we can, sometimes on our cycles, which we combine with visiting gardens in the UK and abroad. I also spend much of my time keeping up to date with the latest film releases, exploring London and on the never-ending task of designing and redesigning on my own garden.