“The Enchanted Garden” by Clapham Landscape Architecture win at the inaugural TDF Design Awards for the Landscape category sponsored by Eco Outdoor.

It was the night of nights as Australian creatives from a variety of disciplines filled Deakin Edge at Melbourne’s Federation Square to take part in The Design Files Design Awards ceremony.

Taking out the award for the Design Awards’ Landscape category was Clapham Landscapes for their Yarra Bend “The Enchanted Garden”.

“The Design Files is such a great source of inspiration of beautiful Australian design across a vast array of mediums. To be recognised amongst so many talented designers is a great honour,” says Jamie Clapham. “To be awarded and judged by such pillars in the design community, of whom I have respected and admired my whole career is just the icing on the cake.”

An Immersive Entry With A Sensory Experience

“The Enchanted Garden” creates a welcoming entrance to the Yarra Bend development with its lush planting and water feature finished with Porphyry Filetti stone that follows the natural curve of the river.

“We wanted to create a watercourse that reflected the nature of the nearby Yarra River,” says Jamie. “Laying the elongated shape of the Filetti longwise along the watercourse enhanced the flowing movement of water, whilst the rough texture of the product broke the surface adding further effect. This was all enhanced by the myriad of colours that appear within the porphyry whilst wet.”

“Although relatively small, I feel The Enchanted Garden creates an immersive space of layered textures that react with the senses creating a much larger experience,” explains Jamie. “The sound of the running water, the movement of wind through the trees, the constantly changing light bouncing off the mirrored surfaces, and the Soundsystem throughout playing the local soundscape all contribute to this multifaceted sensory experience.”

Richly Deserved Concur TDF Design Awards Judges

Design Awards’ judge Rick Eckersley says the entries were of a high standard with a broad range of styles. “The winning garden was as all good design is – simple, fluid and well proportioned,” he says. “I hope this is the beginning of a highly sort after accolade in garden design. Congratulations to Jamie Clapham and to all the finalists.”

Fellow judge Paul Bangay also was impressed with the winning garden stating fulfilled every goal for him. “I was thrilled to see Jamie Clapham win the TDF landscape award. I thought his design was dynamic and highly interesting. The use of water to carry you through the landscape was highly innovative and textural. Richly deserved,” says Paul.

“This is a space I want to be in,” says landscape award judge Georgina Reid. “It feels very immersive & resolved. A sophisticated & elegant response to site & client.”

Project Photography by Alex Reinders 

Republished with Permission by Eco Outdoor.
See original article here

Event Photography Amelia Stanwix

This Garden is also a finalist in The Design Files awards 2019

The Enchanted Garden was a concept derived by our team in conjunction with Glenvill homes to create a welcoming entry reflecting the surrounding landscape, to the vibrant new developmental in Alphington, named Yarra Bend.

The development has been dubbed ” the world’s most liveable suburb” with thoughtful sustainability and high-Tech facilities. The clients brief was for this garden to create a welcoming oasis that reflected the sites rich cultural history as well as its significance and proximity to the connected bush land corridor and Yarra River.  We endevoured to create this link between the old and the new through interpreting the brief quite literally and cladding all vertical surfaces with relective materials, and keeping the focus of the design on the natural flora and fauna.

As you enter the garden you are greeted by a subtle running water course that curves throughout the garden. This soft water feature uses recycled rain water and is reference to the Yarra River, where cycling, running and outdoor gyms are connected by paths through nature. The adjacent curved reflective retaining wall which splits the garden into two levels represents the Yarra’s river banks.We wanted the curved pathway to take the visitor on a journey that evokes the senses, through sounds, touch and smell.  Paying homage to the sites native bushland surroundings we chose to use a strictly native planting palette. The trees were planted in a strict grid pattern to reflect within the mirrored walls into infinity. We would have preferred river red gums as the feature trees, but these were not readily available in advanced sizes and this garden needed immediate impact from the day of opening.The main material pallet of polished aluminium and concrete was also to reflect the modern intent of the future Yarra Bend development, whilst combining natural elements to make the garden feel like a modern oasis. The use of rough cut porphyry stone was used to line the watercourse, in reference to the changing colours and textures of a flowing river.

Creating a wow factor from the entrance was imperative to the design, so we chose to incorporate 4-meter mirrored walls  to extend the gardens beauty and boldness.Originally just going to be green walls, we pushed the boundaries to create something that is not often seen. The mirrored walls of the garden were designed to show a never-ending landscape, much similar to the natural surrounds on the nearby banks of the Yarra River. They are used in a way that allows you to escape the everyday life of the city, and be surrounded by the native and lush surrounds of the Yarra River. Almost transcending the space around you to a secluded oasis surrounded by lush native plants and hearing the trickle of the natural water spring.

The hi tech use of sound was also high on our priority list in making this garden a standout. We were lucky enough to engage a sound engineer to create sound loops of walking, bicycle riding, birds song, even a bicycle bell. That sounds loop as you walk through the garden really transporting the visitor within an open oasis and makes you feel like you are not merely a few km away from the city. This looped sound track is played back within the site through 24 hidden speakers, some being fixed to the back of the mirrored walls, effectively turning the boundary into a large speaker. The effect is further enhanced by splitting the speakers into different zones creating a layered effect, picking up on the frogs and insects in the understory, and the birds in the tree canopy.   We have found that many of the local birdlife now visit the site looking for the birds creating our recorded sounds.

The Design Files Awards Winners to be announced September 19th.
Sound Engineers: David Franzke and James Wilkinson
Builder: Glenvill
Landscaper: Avoca Landscape Construction
Photographer: Alex Reinders

Outdated, overgrown and out of control. The space was a mess when we first visited. It looked as though suburbia met jungle, but jungle had its own plans! Immediately we recognised that there were obvious issues with function and usability. The existing broken pool and pool fence being the main offenders.

After consulting with the client, it was decided that the entire space needed a face lift. As you can see, once the jungle and ill-considered pool fence had been removed, the space became much less claustrophobic. One of our client’s requests of was that they wanted to have a smaller plunge pool and spa. Due to the nature of the site and the very restricted access we couldn’t use any major machinery so all was completed by hand.

To overcome major excavations the new Plunge pool and spa was formed up inside the existing pool while the rest of the old pool was filled in with scoria and covered over with a concrete slab on piers ready for paving. The existing spa was fitted with drainage, filled with soil and turned into a planter.

As you can see the space has now opened right up with much less space dedicated to the pool and spa and much more space dedicated to outdoor living and dining. The garden is much tidier with what will be a thick, tall hedge in the background and features three Maple trees spread amongst the garden beds. The plants are obviously still only in early days so there is much more development ahead.

The pavilion is what really makes the area work! Now that the custom made cushions have been placed on the bench seat, we have a really cosy outdoor lounging area built to be comfortable in both summer and winter with a ceiling fan and heaters built in. Note the ottoman also designed in-house by CLA allows the cushion to be stored under converting into a beautiful coffee table.

Thank you to Avoca landscapes and Falcon pools for their contributions to this project.

If you would like to see more images of the completed project please follow the link:

Our clients were putting their house on the market and wished to maximise the potential of the sale. One major downfall of the property was the three story apartment block looking down over the back fence into the garden.

We had one week before the marketing campaign began, so it was action stations! First stop was shopping for something suitable that would do the job, and we found it in the form of 8 metre high bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii).

It is hard to find advanced plants that will keep their foliage year round, with a very narrow spread, not to mention anything in supply with only a few days’ notice!

Getting them there on crane trucks was one thing, but we also had to be able to move them around and plant them. They each weighed about 750kg!

We managed to squeeze a small mobile crane very slowly through the bottom garage with 50mm to spare. Once set up in the rear garden we were able to roll the bamboo through the garage and use the crane to position them along the rear fence line.

Also considered was the fact that once planted they could very easily blow over and cause some serious damage to the surrounding buildings, so we installed 4mt high steel posts in 2mt concrete footings. Steel wires were stretched between all the posts allowing us to firmly support each bamboo.

We then had the clean-up. The weather hadn’t been kind and there was mud everywhere. But thanks to a massive effort by the crew at ‘The garden Company’ and some fresh new instant turf the garden came together beautifully and no more overlooking apartments! This was all completed with only hours to spare before the first house inspection.

Happy clients/happy days!

Thank you to the following businesses who kindly lent their products to Clapham Landscape Architecture to use on their stand,

• Smoke & Mirrors DesignSmoke & Mirrors Design for the loan of their mirror, ‘Rain Drops’ 900mm in rust finish. Elwood Vic 3184 mobile 0417 523 822 email fionafell@me.com www.facebook.com/Smoke.MirrorsDesign
• Eco Outdoor for the loan of their outdoor Lennox Bar Table and Bar Stools and their Latego Side Table. www.ecooutdoor.com.au Google+ page 422 Burnley St Melbourne VIC (03) 9427 8911
• Plantmark SELECT for the loan of their plants including, a Japanese maple as well as some pots of Ptilotus exaltatus ‘joey’ Plantmark SELECT Trade Market Tel: 03 8734 3100 Fax: 03 8734 3111 Manager: Chris Hos

A very small space required an ingenious solution. Clapham Landscape Architects to the rescue to design this Japanese oasis in a small shaded courtyard. The combination of water feature with Japanese ornamental plantings creates the perfect space for quiet contemplation, and seamlessly flows through from indoors to outdoors linking the two. Lighting plays a key role to accentuate the exquisite features, the water feature and plantings are designed to develop with time without overpowering the delicate landscape features.

Clapham Landscapes undertook an interesting flip on your typical ‘Roof Top’ Garden. This project was in fact a ‘rooftop’ over a ‘basement’ construction at a Toorak residence. A full Perennial Garden was established on top of the basement to create an expansive and opulent garden setting. Full drainage and load bearing considerations were taken into account during the design and planning stage. In addition the long term impact of fauna growth and root systems needed to be accounted for. The project was completed on time, on budget, client delighted with result.

The video is shot on location around Melbourne. If you are considering using Clapham Landscapes for your project this is an ideal way to get a sneak peak of what you can expect working with Jamie, and the quality of the end result.

View Gardening Australia Video

Below is provided an overview of the video content:

Fact Sheet from Gardening Australia interview

Jamie feels that it’s a very rewarding experience to work and create something that’s going to grow past his lifetime. It’s a passion that he just can’t get away from – he loves it.

His first memories of working with plants are unloading semi trailers of plants from Queensland on Christmas Day for the family nursery, and thinking, “What a drag this is”. But that’s also where he picked up his passion for plants – he says it sort of got into his blood.

Jamie has always been a little bit different from most landscape architects, in that he is very hands on. He likes getting in there amongst it, getting dirty, and he also finds that it allows him to be dynamic in his approach to the whole design. It means that he doesn’t have to follow the initial design on paper “to the T”. If he’s on site and something feels better a certain way, then he can just go ahead and do it. He likes to be there when the plants turn up, just to “tweak” their placement.

Jamie has got his own likes and dislikes and particular styles he likes to follow, but it’s very client driven as well. The client’s the one that’s going to end up with the garden so he needs to work towards what they want.

The process Jamie follows is generally to do a couple of rough sketches. He also likes doing perspective illustrations of the intended concept. He finds that clients can more easily understand the design that he’s hoping to create for them if they see an illustration. It also gives him way of focusing on the boundaries and everything within the space, rather than just looking at it from above.

There is a trend at the moment towards repetitious planting. Jamie tends to use it quite a lot because he doesn’t like creating what he calls ‘fruit salads’, where everything’s mashed in together, there’s a clash of colours and so many things going on that the eye can’t rest peacefully anywhere. He feels that the human sense of peacefulness tends to come out of subtlety.

An example of what happens when he works with architects from the early stages of a project is one job where a house had been created with a large Spanish influence. Jamie took a lead from them and put a Spanish garden out the front. Of all the projects he’s done, this one would have to be one of his favourites. A couple of years ago he travelled to Spain and studied some of the Moorish gardens there – in particular the ‘Alhambra’, where there are a lot of water rills, and cumquats Citrus japonica.

The Spanish-style design he created has water rills and terracotta pots lined up. Out the back, around the swimming pool, there are advanced olive trees Olea europaea, surrounded by lavender Lavandula angustifolia, which is another Mediterranean planting and very drought-tolerant. Jamie says that one of the best attributes of this garden is how it looks as night falls. There’s multiple lighting all the way throughout, all the major features and colonnades are highlighted, the pond’s lit from within, the water rill lights up and it becomes quite a magic place.

Another favourite garden of Jamie’s is one that had a two fold design brief. The first part was to provide an interesting entrance, so as the visitors come through the gate they’re greeted with a water feature. The second side of the brief was to provide an interesting garden to be viewed from above. So what he tried to do was to work this garden almost like a painting and provide different panels of colour and texture.

Jamie’s used star jasmine Trachelospermum asiaticum as a ground cover which works really well, and then there are dogwoods punching out of that, which have beautiful red stems in the middle of winter. They, in turn, work well with the ‘Senkaki’ Japanese maples Acer palmatum, that also have red stems.

Jamie has found, over the years, that it’s best not to be influenced by any one particular designer or style. He likes to read the space that’s on offer and take his lead from there, using the landscape’s natural aspects. The house sitting within the garden is also quite important as it and the garden have to connect harmoniously.

Jamie feels it’s very important to think down the track – 5, 10, even 20 years. Gardens aren’t just for the next couple of years. He likes to think that he’ll be able to go back and visit most of his gardens in 20 years and they’ll still look fantastic and will continue to do so.