Modern Mystery: Contemporary landscapes may look simple, but there's an art to making them work. We asked two designers to help unravel the mystery behind modern design

摘要

In many ways, the process of designing a modern residential landscape is not much different from designing any other type. There is the lay of the land to consider, the personal desires of the homeowner, drainage, existing plants, pets, children, sunlight. And, of course, the landscape needs to fit with the style of the house. So why is it, then, that contemporary landscape design winds up looking so different from, say, a cottage garden or a formal garden or any other style you'd normally see pairedwith a house? What makes a modern landscape so unique? Well, as it turns out, this is not an easy question to answer. For this story, I talked with landscape architects from two Minneapolis firms known for their modern design aesthetic, Stephanie Grotta, one of the partners at Coen & Partners, and Matt Olson, cofounder of rosenlof/lucas landscape design+ installation. Though both instinctively know what defines a modern landscape, they each struggled to it into words.