About Garden Statues

 

A classic statue under a Passion fruit vine, close to a pond. Sherman Gardens and Library. Note how the Autumn colors climbers are "trapping" the nymph. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2020.

Before incorporating a statue to the garden, a theme has to be selected. Will it be meditation, religious, decorative, animal, person (male, female), mythological? The size has to be according to the scale of the garden. The quantity, has to be decided. If more than one, a layout in a group is more indicated than having them dispersed, unless the garden is really extended and there is the chance to walk along different paths, in other words, to discover the different spaces created with every statue.

A group of spiritual statues next to a pond. From the book In a Mexican Garden. By Melba Levick and Gina Hyams. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives.

A rustic Mexican statue surrounded by a bed of Impatients. From the book In a Mexican Garden. By Melba Levick and Gina Hyams. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives.

A statue at the Sherman Gardens and Library. Newport Beach. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020

A statue breaks the (eventual) monotony of plants, giving structure to a garden and creating interesting corners. If close to a source of water, it should face the water and if possible, to be reflected on it. If close to an edge, a (round, arch) wall with climbers would give a solid background for the overall composition. Flowers beds around a statue would be nice and a complimentary decoration.

A statue at the Sherman Gardens and Library. It's seen along a path. Newport Beach. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020

Quiet figures that make us feel positive and in peace, are better than those aggressive which disrupt the “energy”.

Spiritual figures in gardens should be treated with respect and located in places of honor, never close to sewer, compost, heaps. The approach to the garden should be considered as a gradual trajectory; a pedestal is a good solution to see the statue as soon as a person enters the garden. 

The Virgin Mary in a very high pedestal with flowers beds around. Rancho Dominguez, Compton, CA. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2019.

The Virgin Mary in a very high pedestal with flowers beds around. Rancho Dominguez, Compton, CA.  See how the paths lead to the statue and it becomes a focal point of view. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2019.

Align statues along a fountain. Getty Villa, Malibu. The day was cloudy but we can still see the reflections on the water. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives, 2017.

A free standing statue on a pedestal at the Getty Villa, Malibu, CA. I don't think the pedestal looks good just as a concrete cylinder. In my opinion it does not look integrated with the landscape around. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2017.

A beautiful sculpture sitting on a rock and as a focal point of a path perspective. Getty Villa. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2017.

The statue could be partially covered with climbers, hidden in the landscape as an archaeological concept, or be freestanding as the focal point of a perspective in a path, or maybe in a strategic location to be seen when a window is open.

Best materials for statues are natural ones, like wood, stone, or cast concrete, bronze, which make them look like pieces of art and not cheap white pop culture reproductions. 

A beautiful classic sculpture intertwined with ravines. Sherman Gardens and Library, Newport Beach. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives, 2020.

This picture above and next one below. I have taken them during a house remodel in Beverly Hills. Though the landscape works were not done yet, see how loose and careless the statues are left between the weeds and two pot plants. The "classic" guardrail is not good as a background. 

Photos by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. AKA 2016

Ponds Reflections

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2017.

I have been visiting the Sherman Gardens and Library in Newport Beach for long years. I prefer to go in different seasons to see the new arrangements, plants and landscape decorations. And of course, every time, I take lots of pictures. The one above and next are from the pond inside the Greenhouse, 2017.

I feel fascination to see the Koi fish across the geometrical patterns of the translucent roof. I always see it  as a clear combination of nature and architecture. Because when we look at the pond, it is not only the fish, but the elements seen underwater and the reflections above as well. And the sum of all of this creates the beauty of the pond.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2017

I took this picture without the Koi fish to emphasize the architectural reflection and shadows. Note the deep blue of the CA sky! Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2017

This year I went to see the pond again. And the colors and reflections were not the same, even under the blue radiant sky. I looked up and it seems to me the plastic sheets in the roof are brand new. The interesting geometrical patterns have been lost. I have no other explanation, I always go at -approximately- the same hour. I am sharing the pictures to compare the impressions. I have even squeezed my eyes, thinking it could be the different camera I am using, but no. This is another type of reflection.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives 2020.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020.

The next two pictures were taken in Fashion Island, Newport Beach. And the reflection of the building looks great to me, mostly on the second shot.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives, November 2017.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives, November 2017.

This two pictures below were taken at the Sherman Gardens in 2017. The pond is open to the sky and this is what it looked like. In a partial view. The aquatic plants take the whole credit.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2017

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2017

This year, the same pond has been covered by Passion fruit plant. And look how the pond looks with the climber reflections, absolutely gorgeous. It has gained a lot of texture, color and mystery. 

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020.

This is the hanging plants above the pond. Note the added reflections and textures even in Autumn. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020.

This is the hanging plants above the pond. Note the added reflections and textures even in Autumn. I left the figure of the man behind to add scale. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020

The picture above is not a pond but a huge ceramic pot filled with water and with flowers floating in it. Under a trellis. See the nice reflections of light and shadows. Depending on the view, we can see the trellis right above and those complex patterns that look like fractals among the flowers.

We have more visual and cognitive value without a doubt.  The organic patterns are intertwined with  the Euclidean patterns of the 2x joists in the trellis.

Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020

This pond and fountain from The Getty Villa in Malibu looks pretty dull to me. I even think the temple behind is extra. And there is not treatment of the planters edges. See there are almost no reflections inside the pond. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives, 2017.

Some Concepts on Healing Landscapes Design

 

Since mid 1990 there has been an emphasis in the approach of healing gardens / landscape design. Whoever has spent long hours waiting in the hallways of a hospital, or working, or as a patient, knows how stressful it could be. The proposed improvements were destined to buildings and the overall environment, including the outdoors. Current researches prove what we knew intuitively, that  human connection with nature helps in our healing process: even the observation of a tiny flower, a colorful dry leaf, or of a spider web with beautiful raindrops, distracts us from everyday problems!. In SXXI therapeutic gardens designers began working with health professionals, recovered patients and their families' advices. Words like "Ecotherapy", "Terrapsychology", "Ecopsychology", "Green Exercise", "Biophilia", are common terms now. There are so many variables in design, that simulated nature was used for researchers to reduce the possible outcomes. And then the question arises, if simulated nature is still good and less expensive than landscape art (posters, murals, TV screens), why real nature is needed? Just for combined sensory experience.

I have watched professor emeritus Reuben Rainey's conference on YouTube about his experience and work in healing spaces in healthcare facilities. The conference was part of the Spring 2019 SA+P Lecture Series, University of Virginia.

I found it very interesting, though the noise in the background is annoying. This post is a summary of my notes together with some key screen shots images. 

The professor shows a Healthcare facility of people with dementia. He reminds us that the landscape and hardscape is not only destined to the patients' relax but to the families and medical-nurses staff as well. It is important that patients are in contact with nature, able to touch and smell. So the design is highly tactile and multisensorial, with transition spaces (see the trellis above) for activities and veggie gardens.

Seating elements must be provided, though it is not specific what type, I personally prefer movable, so I can sit wherever I want, shadow, sunlight, twilight..... unless the seating is along a path. The edges are transparent so patients are able to see around and have more points of reference to avoid confusions.

The picture below is showing a floor plan, with the trellis in the center as a transition space, the landscape is extended around and there is a closed circuit for wheelchairs which guides the patients to come back. Professor Rainey comments designers should be careful with the budget. The construction of the hardscape-landscape could be a 20% of the overall budget of a facility but he says the extra amount usually turns back in two years.

The picture below shows a tall brick wall with an adjacent planter. He mentions one learns from its own mistakes. The adjacent planter allowed a tall patient to jump over the wall and land on the street. 

The last part of the conference is dedicated to cancer patients. Here is a project with lots of glass in the corridors where the landscape can be seen through the tall windows. Natural light has healing power. 

Cancer patients need to be in quietude. Absorbing sound materials are recommended. When chemo is underground, he proposes murals of landscapes (see photo below). He mentions it has been nice to see some people distract themselves looking for their own houses. 

Apart from natural light, absorbing materials, glass and murals, he has incorporated "funny" paintings from a local artist to create a sense of familiarity. He says people find them very attractive to the point of being stolen :)

Each cow has its own name. People take pictures of them.

Professor Rainey says that more natural elements as symbolism had been added, but people fail to understand the theory and associate with memories. For example, stones and the beach. Stones are also used for calmness and meditation.

The view of the street is helpful for distraction as well. We can see proposed open terraces in the picture below. Trees are conforming edges. 

In the picture above we see how landscape integrates with the spaces indoor.

The overall idea for Healthcare landscape- hardscape design is to stimulate inspiration and enthusiasm for life. It is a good idea to include flowers and colors.

Landscape and Architecture

 

Newport Beach City Hall. The building, the sidewalk and the lawn as a separate landscape entity. The trees are planted as an edge to block the view of the parking structure. It is an example of contrast. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2017.

Recent landscape theory has focused in the tensions between culture, perception, on one side, and ecological function on the other. Architecture and landscape are precisely connected to culture and cognition. In an ample sense, architecture should include indoors and outdoors. Reuben M. Rainey provides three basic modes of relationship:

Contrast, merger and reciprocity. They do not always appear in their pure form. They allow extra meaning and complexity to the design work. These modes are based on the relationship between humans and nature.

“Contrast juxtaposes architecture with the natural or cultural landscape. A typical strategy sets a building against a relatively untouched swath of the natural environment. The building’s scale, profile, color and materials act in concert to create a powerful counterpoint to its immediate setting. There are no transitional gardens or terraces to act as a bridge, ..” (1)

Contrast is usually used by designers who consider architecture apart from nature, considering architecture more on the side or arts.

Merger is the opposite. “Here a building is made to appear an integral part of its natural or cultural landscape. In a natural landscape, the form of the building may reflect the surrounding topography or, in extreme cases, be placed underground so as not to be visible. (….) Often the view of nature that informs merger understands nature as a transcendent power that transforms human existence or evokes a sense of deep feeling states in the psyche.” (1)

The Hills at Valco, Cupertino, CA. Designed by arch. Rafael Vinoly. More than the 80% of the total site area is covered by an accessible green roof. It is clear example of a merger project.

A perspective of The Hills at Valco, Cupertino. 

Images from  https://www.theplan.it/eng/award-2017-mixedspace/the-hills-at-vallco-1

Westpoint Humanities Center. Designed by arch. Rafael Vinoly. Another example of a merger project. Photo from Westpointaog.org

Rainey gives the example of Frank Lloyd’s Wright Fallingwater. We used to discuss about this at the University, if the house was integrated with the landscape or not. The typical answer from the students was that the house was mimetic. And we professors did not agree, because of the right angles and the pure geometry across nature. Though it has elements of mimesis or memory of nature.

Frank Lloyd's Wright. Fallingwater House. Picture from  Wikipedia.

“Reciprocity is the most frequently employed of the three strategies. In it, buildings and landscape modify one another –each one to some degree is reflected in the other. Building plan may be projected quite literally into the immediately adjacent landscape; or, more subtly, indoor and outdoor spaces may share the same organization principles, expressed in such architectonic elements as terraces, pergolas, walls, arcades, pools, fountains and plants. A zone of transition may interlock or penetrate the plan of the building itself”.(1)

From all the many examples that come to my mind, the work of Mexican architect Luis Barragan is my predilect. He incorporated the bright color free standing walls into the landscape, but at the same time, the landscape would penetrate and participate into the indoor and outdoor architecture.

 

Fuente de los Amantes. Designed by arch. Luis Barragan. From Wikipedia

Casa Gilardi. Designed by arch. Luis Barragan. The pool inside the house. Note the primary colors. Wikipedia.

Another interesting example is the Bowers Museum, in Santa Ana. As seen from the street, the white Colonial building is in contrast with the gardens around. But, once we are inside, the many reflections of the windows and crystals displays inside bring the adjacent garden trees inside.

Reflections inside the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, CA. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, 2020.

 (1) Reuben M. Rainey. Architecture and Landscape: Three Modes of Relationship. Places. Vol 4. Number 4. 1988

https://placesjournal.org/assets/legacy/pdfs/architecture-and-landscape-three-modes-of-relationship.pdf

The Foliage Garden

 

Path inside Westfield La Jolla. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, Summer 2018. Personal archives.

This landscape design above does not need flowers. The striking red of the restaurant columns and the dark planters combined with the white, light blue and soft gray is enough to capture our attention.

The most important feature of a foliage garden is the physical (somehow architectural) structure the leaves provide to the garden. 

Apart from the combination of different types of leaves, the long lasting foliage goes well with wild grasses, lots of ferns for shadowed areas, and a selection of deciduous to achieve different characters along the seasons.

Depending on the location of big leaves and small ones, an illusion of depth, or increased width can be created. If the big leaves are at the front of the arrangement, we will have a conceptual perspective that visually extends the limits.

From the book Combining Plants

From the book Combining Plants

From the book Combining Plants

From the book Combining Plants

From the book Combining Plants

Items to consider in a foliage garden:

How the plant will grow? Extended to the sides, or up?

How big the leaves will be once the plant is planted in the ground?

Do leaves cover the whole plant or just part of it?

Is the scale of the plant selected good for the garden?

Are we working with color combination? (silver-gray, golden, green, purple, blueish, yellowish…)

How many different leaves shapes are we combining?

Will the design be in repeating patterns or in masses?

Will there be a dominant plant or tree?

This picture is from my front porch. There is a Rubber Tree (Gomero) that I constantly trim, and a Pothos that survives the Winter if it is not too cold. The Pothos is planted under the eaves, in the ground. In consequence the leaves have grown unexpectedly big. Though not as big as the ones in Brazil. Picture by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2020.

There is a variety of shapes: swordlike, rounded, heart shaped, detailed and intricate (like the Asparagus fern), lobed, pointed, etc. It is important not to select lots of different shapes, but repeat some patterns to create groups.

Textures varieties are smooth, shiny, rough, corrugated, ribbed, leathery,…. The smooth shiny leaves are the ones that reflect the sunlight more, but repel the rain. One of my favorites is lamb’s ears, due to the color and because it keeps the drops of rain and gives it a special brightness.

A combination I have at home: layers of Poinsettia in red-green. Above Asparagus Fern which tiny fruits will turn red. And behind and like a cupola supporting the fern, loose leaves of Queen of the Night and Dragon Fruit cactus. This arrangement allowed my Poinsettia to stay healthy the whole year. Picture by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2020

The plants overall form is the first feature that captures our attention. Form is related to the foliage density and growth, which gives structure. Seen from afar, the foliage may appear coarse, fine or dense. The growth habits come in degrees; they could be upright, layered, pyramidal, domed, mounded, fan-shaped, arching, weeping, bowl-shaped. The combination of density and grow habit is the basis for the group morphology. Dark colors behind yellow add depth and three dimension.

The distribution of leaves allows the creation of boundaries or highlight certain areas. For example, more density at the edges of a group, and sparse plants inside. Heavy bushes look better in repeating patterns.

The Getty Center. Green arrangement with an edge, sparse plants and trees. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2018

The Getty Center. Trees with green edges. Note the shadows of the trees on the light color floor. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2018

 Reference book for the post: Combining plants. By the editors of Time-Life books. Consultant Robert S. Hebb. USA 1995