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Held Shape During: THE USE of different shapes and patterns is perhaps the single most important element in designing a garden. In a really good garden, the shape and pattern of every component, from the broad outline of a path or lawn to the details such as the contrasting shapes of miniature shrubs in a particular stone trough, will have been thoroughly thought out.
Shapes introduce movement, balance and punctuation to a garden design. Movement can come from the repeated use of upright shapes like arches, which takes the eye away into the distance. The effect will work either in a formal symmetrical context or in a more informal zigzag fashion. Balance will help the garden to look restful to the eye: a dramatic upright shape can be countered by an adjoining low mound, and the two can be held shape during together by some horizontal shapes.
THIS INFLUENCES design considerably. Few plots are symmetrical, but that really does not matter. An L-shape or a triangle can even offer more design potential than a rectangle. Perhaps the most difficult shape of all is a square, particularly when it is too small to subdivide as in many yards in front. A design for an awkward shape needs to be carefully thought out. A long thin area, for example, can be divided into contrasting sections with barriers across its width, but by leaving a narrow view running through from one end to the other you create an additional sight line. Furthermore, by placing an ornamental feature like a statue or seat at the far end, you gain the full benefit from the site's length while the screens minimize the disadvantages of its shape.
The shape of the geoid is defined by its departure from a "reference ellipsoid" which fits most closely to the shape of the earth; in this case, the average level of the land and sea is taken as the norm. Mountains are then higher and sea-floors lower than the surface of this ellipsoid. (An ellipsoid is the regular geometric shape obtained by revolving an ellipse round one of its axes.) |
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