The Importance Of Design When Planning A Garden

CONSTRUCTING a garden means more than picking one’s favorite plants and placing them wherever one wants.

- Yvette Tan

Sometimes, and more often than we realize, one needs the help of an expert when planning for greenery, particularly if it’s for public use. This is where a landscape architect comes in. “We do a lot of planning before we plant something,” says Erick Yambao, CEO of Plontur, a landscape architecture firm that focuses on the design of residential and commercial spaces.

Landscape architecture takes into consideration not just the buildings that will surround the green space, but also the genius loci or spirit of the place, choosing and arranging plants in such a way that will evoke a desired emotion. “Architecture’s focus is housing people inside the building. Us, it’s the other way around—how do we integrate that experience of nature with everything that you do, in that development,” he says.

In short, it’s like branding, but for a park, garden, or even a tourist-centric farm. “It has a lot of effects in behavior and actions of how the people think,” Yambao adds. “On the commercial side… it’s all about the experience of the place, the cohesive branding with the architect, the landscape, the interior—it’s all about design… I would think that other people would notice it, but not a lot of people can articulate it.”

ADDRESSING THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND NATURE

Yambao, 34, is a Landscape Architecture graduate from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Plontur, which is Icelandic for plants, began in 2017, and is well known for its elegant, straightforward aesthetic, which complements the surrounding architecture. The company also likes to experiment, resulting in landscape designs that modern, yet otherworldly.