COS Design:
“We work with many pool builders and there are a few requirements that remain high on the priority list when recommending builders to our clients and projects.”
who, what, when COS Design, formerly Creative Outdoor Solutions started in 2000 as a landscape construction company and it pretty much was me, an apprentice and my Ute.
After just missing out on the first ever intake of Landscape Architect students at Melbourne University straight out of school. I stepped away from what I knew I loved for six to seven years and earned myself a business management degree. After designing and constructing the front garden of my first house, my true passion and calling had slapped me in the face, and I immediately enrolled myself into night school to learn the trade of landscape design and construction and the rest was history. Six months into the course I had resigned from my well-paid management role and I was on the tools, digging holes for minimum wage and I had never been happier. The day I got qualified was the day I started my company which also happened to be the day my first child was born. After a year or two of building other designer’s gardens I started designing my own projects for free to simply win construction works and become a self-sustaining entity. We quickly grew to a team of 11 and were designing and building award winning gardens for a number of years until I came to the realisation that I was only building gardens to bring my designs to life. The big decision was made in 2010 to wind construction down and purely design as the design business became a profitable and sustainable business within its own rights.
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12 years later we are still growing strong and are currently designing approximately 80 plus gardens a year with a team of 7 wonderful employees. Our services include consulting, concept plans, town planning, working drawings, construct administration and procurement.
Trends As we are all aware trends do come and go and we have seen many over the years. The one that really stands out for me would be in the early 2000’s when yuccas became the “in” plant and were being used in every second suburban garden. Never again!! Apart from the massive, self sustaining wealth gained by a well know Melbourne wholesale Nursery, nothing good came from yuccas apart from every tree loppers worst nightmare.
Curves are back baby! Curves are back and it has been an interesting phenomena to observe and be a part of. I think garden designs have become a lot more organic in recent times with a larger emphasis on plants, greenery and softening of bold masculine architectural forms as opposed to mirroring sharp form in the garden. Curves have evolved from this into a more organic, softening approach to gardens. Many architects are also incorporating curves into their craft, which we can play on and transpose into the exterior zones to continue the architectural language. Not to mention curves are just sexy!
