Garden by William Dangar

Author:William Dangar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2017-08-19T04:00:00+00:00

INTRIGUING

JOURNEY

Sometimes in a career there is a meeting of minds and aesthetics that, once begun, endures and grows into a mutually beneficial partnership. That’s what happened between Will and architect Luigi Rosselli, who were brought together on this project. ‘The client wanted to use me, but the architect had his own team,’ says Will. ‘For me, it was important because I had always admired Luigi’s work and, to his credit, while he didn’t know much about me, he gave me a go.’

Luigi Rosselli is an architect who takes a humane approach to his work, in which the sense of place is crucial and the relationship between building and site follows the spirit of great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

‘I believe it is possible to settle a building on its site, create a marriage and a dialogue with that site … I think there should be a strong connection between the building and the land,’ Luigi says.

This also makes clear the value he places on landscaping, for there is no greater connecting force than how the appropriate use of flora and intelligent reworking of outdoor areas integrates one with the other and strengthens the relationship been land and built form.

‘We now have a fantastic working relationship which has moved from the heavy briefing of the early days to a much looser, seamless experience where he intuitively knows exactly what clients we will gel with, allowing our approach to be much more freeform,’ says Will.

This job was the second phase of a large project, with the brief mainly concentrated on a pool area that was somewhat divorced from the main house.

‘To establish a sense of connection, we designed a sandstone amphitheatre with a fire pit, providing an interim space between the house and pool,’ says Will. ‘This both helps create the sense of a journey from the house and, by introducing an element of intrigue, draws attention to the lower garden, where the pool is.’

Taking inspiration from the Grey Garden in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, with its concentration of plants with silvery or grey colouring, Will began to develop a light-toned plant selection including yuccas, prickly pear, mother-in-law’s tongue, crassula and olive trees. To this day he gives credit to his clients who held the faith while big dragon trees were craned into position beside the pool. ‘We did something unusual by setting a short and tall tree close together, and then a third slightly apart,’ says Will. ‘As you walk down towards the pool, you see the tree canopies before anything else, so their relative heights and positioning were important.’

The pool, its surrounds incorporating an integrated sculptural bench and cabana, were all part of the original Luigi Rosselli design; to soften this space, Will trained a wisteria over the pergola, which runs along one side of the pool.

Now that they have collaborated on more than 30 projects, Will believes that the architect thinks ‘we are brave with our plant choices and we give this instantaneous sense of completion to all his work’.

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