Loving the Landscape Don’t underestimate the impact of outdoor spaces on your lifestyle – they’re the master stroke in the design plan
70 — OUR PL ACE
MULTI-AWA R DW INNING DESIGNER Ben Hoyle of Blue
Gecko Landscapes might employ ethereal and artful ideas when entering competitions at international flower shows (he once made an outdoor room in the shape of a giant waterlily floating on a pond) but in the everyday, he’s usually dealing with solutions that are a little more mundane. Like where to hide the wheelie bins with their bright-coloured lids or how to disguise the clothesline. Believe it or not, these are issues that Ben, who is based on the Kapiti Coast, loves to get his head around when helping homeowners in the planning stages of their new-builds – and the sooner the better. Historically, landscaping is seen as an adjunct to the architecture but if you don’t integrate this thinking into your plans early on, you can miss opportunities, both big and small. “Even the orientation of a home on a site can be tweaked to make the outdoors more accessible and useable,” says Ben.
