Taming Exterior Greenery: Landscape Design for Houses in Natural Environments

A healthy environment that is also visually appealing in our homes has become increasingly sought when it comes to designing houses and residential spaces, especially during the world’s current context. One of the most successful ways of achieving this is through a thoughtful design of the landscape that complements the built project. The art of landscaping is the arrangement of nature’s raw material elements, like vegetation and planting, combined with nonliving elements, such as exterior structures, paving, and decking, in order to create site-specific solutions that enhance the exterior spaces of a project.  

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The discipline requires knowledge and very specific techniques that many times go beyond the architectural fields per se, and it is why landscape architecture and design have appeared as an expertise branch of design. This has made it very common for architects to resort to collaborative work with landscape offices when working on residential projects.

Particularly in residential landscape architecture, we have found two main ways of resolving gardens, depending on the setting and context on which the project sits. In houses that are already set in natural and green environments, the main objective of landscaping is to tame this exterior greenery as it approaches the house. On the other hand, when the project is located in more dense residential areas, the challenge is to integrate greenery into the house as much as possible through terraces, exterior flooring, and interior courtyards.

Bringing Landscape Into the Interiors

Villa Fifty-Fifty / Studioninedots
Landscape by Studio Frank Heijligers & Buijtels

Fitzroy North House 02 / Rob Kennon Architects
Landscape by Eckersley Garden Architecture

King Bill House / Austin Maynard Architects
Landscape by Bush Projects

MeMo House / BAM! arquitectura
Landscape by Bulla

Garden House / Austin Maynard Architects
Landscape by Eckersley Garden Architecture

POP-UP House / FIGR Architecture & Design
Landscape by Mud Office

Mulungu House / Venta Arquitetos + Mariana Meneguetti
Landscape by EMBYÁ

Fleet House / Stanton Williams
Landscape by Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape

Exterior Landscaping in Natural Settings

Metrick Cottage and Boathouse / Akb Architects
Landscape by Rockscape Landscape

Hood River Residence / Scott | Edwards Architecture
Landscape by PLACE

Tierwlthaus House / Feldman Architecture
Landscape by Surface Design Inc.

C79 House / Base taller
Landscape by Mesa y Uribe paisajistas

House with the Soaring Rock / Spasm Design
Landscape by A.Y. Ratiwalla

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: Collective Design. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our monthly topics. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on May 23, 2021.