GARDEN DESIGN

Masses and voids

Garden designer TJ Kennedy starts her new series by looking at the fundamentals of any design project

LANDSCAPES AND GARDENS during the winter months are dominated by the arrangement of, and relationship between, masses and voids. This may immediately sound like technical speak, for which I apologise. I know it’s a little early in the year and I may be throwing you in at the deep end, but we will warm up quickly.

Mass and void are the starting blocks for any design. The landscapes that you may have found yourself walking through recently at any stately home or National Trust site illustrate how many of the historical design greats successfully manipulated light, shadow and viewpoints using their understanding of mass and void. It is their expertise that generates a feeling of pleasure for us when in these landscapes.

What is mass? It is the structure, whether planted or built, within an environment – parkland, landscape, your garden. And in the winter it really stands out. Thinking of mass in terms of planting it could be your evergreen planting, as that creates a block, a stop point, an eye diversion. Think topiary such as Taxus baccata (yew) hedging or Buxus (box) domes. These masses tend to be clipped so their form remains the same.

Deciduous planting is your Fagus sylvatica (beech) hedging, autumn leaf trees, spring blossom and flowering shrubs. These plants may drop their leaves but their skeletal form is still a mass. This is an expressive mass which adapts to the seasons and provides you with a palette to view the changing influences. Frost and snow are collected on its bare branches and it allows you to see its habit and gives you a viewpoint through.

Your built structures don’t change. They don’t shred, grow, reflect or move in the breeze which is why it is so important to consider their shape, position and material. We are moving into architecture here but just considering built structure is enough.

So, if mass is the content then void is the areas which are framed by this content. It’s the open spaces and these voids tell us where to go. The mass is telling us how we feel when we are going – narrow passageways between tall evergreens feel very different to wide sweeping routes softened at the edges with deciduous planted beds. But it is the combination of the two elements that tell us how we feel.

The brilliance of many of the great landscape designers is because of their understanding of these elements. Visit any of the following places and see how the relationship between these two elements is accentuated in winter: Chatsworth gardens, Clumber Park, Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue, Burghley and Grimsthorpe Castle. And, further afield, the superb Stowe Park.

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