gardens should capture the
beauty of nature around us,
be timeless in their application
and help us feel rejuvenated
and relaxed

PARKS AND SCHOOLS - DESIGN & PLANNING

Designing Parks and Schools are by nature collaborative ventures. My job here is to express the needs and wants of many into the landscape, ensure the end result is robust and long lasting, and provide places for social interaction, education and play.

A successful Park or School landscape needs to take into account all aspects of sustainability; the vision needs to be achievable and affordable.

I can assist you with:

• Establishing a design brief that reflects the needs and wants of many different groups
• Revitalizing tired or outdated landscapes, including planning new pathway networks, innovative play areas, outdoor rooms and robust plantings
• Presenting sketch plans to the general public, teachers and students, and assessing the feedback given

Scroll down to the PROJECT GALLERY to read more about Carl's specialist areas of design, and to view images of his work.

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 Download Carl's March Newsletter

 

I was approached in 2008 to produce a
redesign of the school grounds for this rural
school in North Canterbury. The brief was to
keep cost down by keeping as much as
possible of the existing paving and planting,
while creating a vastly improved school
landscape, not an insignificant challenge!
The master plan achieved this and it was a
pleasure to work with the pupils to hear their
ideas for what the school needed in its play
areas and gardens. A staged implementation
will eventually see a central amphitheatre
becoming the hub of school performances,
with massive improvements to car parks,
pathways, and shade structures improving
all round safety.

Working with the local community board, a
resident architect and engineer, I produced
this design for a new carpark at north Piha
Auckland. The simple one way system around
the carpark, with central grassed area for
pedestrians, turned what was a very
dangerous area into a much safer one.
This was important as it was renound for
being busy and dangerous to pedestrians in
the summer months. Large timber sleepers
have worked well to help give the carpark a
rustic, rural feel.

This stairway was a solution to a very
interesting problem; How to get a walkway
up the side of Mount Eden in Auckland over
the top of a large water pipe. The pipe
couldn't be buried due to the ground
underneath being full of 400 year old
puhutukawa roots. So I worked with
engineers to design a walkway that sat
above the pipe, and insisted upon the sides
being boarded up with timber to ensure the
pipe was hidden from view. The walkway is
well used, and I have since seen many a
runner using it for exercise.

This small park in Mangare was essentially a
shortcut linking one suburb to another in a
new subdivision. The brief was to design
pathways and seating areas in a tight budget.
I set about doing this by designing a
meandering pathway following the main
pattern of movement through the reserve,
and circular seating areas for sitting and
relaxing on the way.

A design project for Auckland City, the brief
here was to produce a concept for the reserve,
on a main walking track, that recognised the
ecological importance of the local stream.
I worked with an ecologist who found native
trout in the stream (I could barely contain
her excitement), to produce a design with
sufficient riparian plantings to protect and
enhance it. Pathways and a bridge over the
stream would link to existing walking tracks,
and a large grassy space would leave room
for the football or frisbee. Ecology and
recreation in harmony is my idea of a win-win.

There are a lot of these street plantings in
Manukau City, and they were becoming tired,
overgrown, and difficult to maintain.
I was called in to produce Planting Plans
that revamped the existing plantings,
keeping what we could to save costs while
vastly improving the visual quality. We
achieved this, and by introducing colour
in the plant selection brightened sections of
the highway, my contribution to improving
the driver experience.