A walk through a garden with an architect and his client. And the moment I found out whose vision was really driving the project.
Years ago an architect invited me onto a project he was working on. He was renovating a home for a client and he wanted a landscape designer walking through the site with him and the homeowner to discuss the proposed garden.
The three of us walked through the garden together. Every now and then the architect would stop and point out something related to how he saw the garden coming together. Here’s where the pool should go, he’d say, or something like that. I’d listen to what he had to say about his vision for the garden and how it would blend with the architecture of the house.
But after listening to him, I’d always turn to the client and just ask, well, what would you like?
She would tell me all about the pool she liked. Its shape, size and colour. And, most importantly, why it mattered to her. Bit by bit, through walking and talking, I was starting to build up the brief from the client.
Not from what the architect thought the garden should be. Actually from what the client said she wanted.
Then we reached one particular spot in the garden. The architect stopped and said, this is what I insist you do here in this part of the garden. He then went on to explain his idea.
I listened carefully to what he said. Then I turned and looked at the client and asked the same question I’d been asking her all afternoon – so what would you like?
Now I respect architects as fellow creative professionals. I’ve worked and collaborated with many fine architects. And I did think the ideas and concepts coming from this particular architect sounded great and would make for a beautiful garden.
But what I wanted to do, was to make sure I was always side-checking everything with the client to make sure I understood their vision. After all, while the architect designed the house, we, as landscape designers, would ultimately be responsible for designing the garden. And it had to satisfy the client’s needs as much as the architect’s vision.
We didn’t end up getting that job. I think the architect felt I was paying too much attention to the client and not him.
But I don’t regret it one bit. The client is the client. The architect is not the client. My job on the garden walk through that afternoon was not to only be there to agree with the architect’s taste or choices. It was to draw the client’s vision out of her, and help her say it more clearly than she could on her own.
To me, a garden has to reflect the person who is going to live in it. Their tastes, their desires, what they enjoy. It should also avoid what they don’t like and reflect how they see the world. This is deeply personal, and it is different for every client.
There is no point building a cheap garden for someone chasing the highest quality. And there is no point spending a fortune on refinement for someone who is never going to appreciate it. Both are the same mistake: designing a garden for someone other than the person paying for it.
35 years of doing this has taught me where a designer’s real job lies. We offer ideas. We suggest things. We bring our experience and our keen, highly trained eye. But we do not push our opinion down someone’s else’s throat and call it design.
If someone tries to convince you to change your vision for your own garden (and sometimes it will be for a good reason) do not just fold. Keep asking why, until you can fully understand why they are saying what they are saying. They might be right and are trying to help you avoid making a huge mistake.
But you should not change your vision just because someone said something with confidence, but rather because it actually fits with what you want. The moment you stop asking why, your vision becomes diluted. And a diluted vision of your garden is not your garden anymore. It is a compromise wearing your name.
