Playing With The Elements
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday January 25, 2001
As the centrepiece for his garden, Nicholas Bray used a campfire that doubles as an icebox.
When designing for a recent garden show in Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands, Nicholas Bray had one singular purpose: to make people stop and think differently about gardens. "The Southern Highlands has a cottage tradition image. I wanted to do something that would turn heads, to create a garden that was a bit more unpredictable, had a sense of freedom and was not structured by tradition."
The centrepiece of the garden is the fire-pit sculpture, which drew a surprising response. Even the most conservative were intrigued and expressed interest; they loved the concept of being able to sit around a fire, a focal point for a gathering of friends. The garden also features 12 totem poles, different varieties of grasses and no flowers.
"It goes to the roots of Australia," Bray says. "They are all Australian plants apart from a few cactus."
A ribbon of gravel runs diagonally around the plants, working on the landform with three tallboys. The sandstone fire pit is to one side with an adobe wall seat also capped in sandstone. A sandstone pathway runs into the space, then leaves it.
Bray has already established a reputation in the Southern Highlands for creating garden spaces that are different - intriguing knot gardens, massive walled gardens, water gardens, fern gardens, formal and Mediterranean gardens. Here working in conjunction with Craig's Coastal Landscaping
Services, he created yet another crowd-stopping environment.
"The fire is a way to make people congregate in the space, sit around the 'campfire' in their garden surrounded by the sculptures," Bray says. "The totems give a sense of enclosure and protection whilst the curved and slightly moulded forms establish a sense of flow and freedom."
And in summer when there is a fire ban?
"The pit doubles up as an icebox," Bray says. "We took a risk and the response was positive. The exciting thing for me was that it was enjoyed by people who might never have had the opportunity to experience something so radically different.
"So often designers are not given the trust but when they are, the results are phenomenal. Without the trust, ideas get watered down and lose their purity. The unique thing is to tune in to what clients want and deliver, by getting a good sense of what the client needs. The garden is essentially a medium through which they can express themselves".
Nicholas Bray Landscape Architect, 0417 278 267; noodle@tpgi.com.au
Craig's Coastal Landscape Services, 0412 422 486.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald
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