Dune House

"A garden always sits in a cultural context. It has a relationship with place but it is also a world within a world. A place to escape to other worlds and explore different ideas. When a client has a big dream, the skill of the designer is to be able to weave dream into place to create a journey elsewhere, whilst merging gently the borders between place."

Xanthe White

Other worlds
This project is uncompromisingly bold with the clients lifelong dream being to have a Palm Springs home but to be living and retiring close to family and friends whom they value highly. The garden could be a world away but its context is retained with the landscape which itself is a masterpiece of nature.

The first challenge when working with exotics is to make sure we don’t do harm, so are careful that we select species without the attributes of wilding that could disrupt a sensitive ecology. This drove the selection of plants as we wanted aloe and cacti species that were generously floral and dramatic but sterile providing winter nectar for birds but not spreading into the dunes beyond. Despite its otherworldliness, 80 percent of the plants in this project are native species with broad sweeps of Festuca and Astelia and groves of Olive trees blending into groves of Pohutukawa.

The dunes and wetlands were extensively restored and the architectural plants are carefully contained to the entry courtyard and evening fire pit. Native Corokia and groundcovers such as Pimelea blend in with the glaucus tones of Senecio serpens and the uncompromising architecture of the cacti. One dramatic gesture of aloes is contained within a Corten steel planter and is deliberately minimal and architecturally integrated into the moated pool designed by Julian Guthrie, Architect.

The stone is from the clients' home town in Matamata and blends beautifully with the tones of the sandy contexts, allowing us to create soft niches for the gardens. The architecture by Julian Guthrie is sublime and uncompromising. The garden works hard to lap against this with natural form and flow rather than compete with its' sharp lines. The architecture of the garden is formed by the natural drama of the planting.