A question of quality – what it is and how to achieve it was the topic under discussion at the recent Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) and the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) annual workshop which took place in September at Capel Manor College in Enfield.
Following an introduction from Andrew Wilson on behalf of the SGD the event began with APL vice-chairman Mark Gregory interviewing award winning designer Luciano Gubbilei about his perception of quality. The Italian designer, who won a gold medal at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show for the Laurent Perrier garden, provided an enlightening insight into his passion for garden design.
Gubbilei clearly places great emphasis on quality with regard to the planting of his designs and also to the materials used. He likened the process to creating an amazing meal – ‘you need to have the best ingredients’ he said, ‘and the same goes for gardens there is no compromise.’
Gregory, who has worked with Gubbilei since he began designing almost 15 years ago, admires his passion and enthusiasm but also emphasised the fact that he is also a good businessman who is ‘top flight on communications’. He recounted how it was not unusual for Gubbilei to turn up on site sometimes four times a day and really built up a rapport with the landscapers by bringing pizza and chocolate! Gubblilei confessed to feeling physically sick when visiting sites during the early stages of construction before the design really takes shape.
After creating strong partnerships with key landscapers Gubblilei branched out as his business expanded but found that this did not suit him as he could not ensure the same quality of workmanship with a less personal approach. As a result he focuses on a number of core projects with landscapers that he really trusts. He does, however, work on an international scale and is particularly impressed with the proactive nature of innovative Swiss landscapers who work closely with landscape architects and are adept at finding solutions.
Jason Lock, CEO of the APL provided a whistle-stop tour of a typical contract – where things can go wrong, where to be the most careful and why a good contract makes good business sense. His top tips for ensuring that you have a good contract are:
- Design – make sure you have a good one from the outset
- Ensure you know and communicate the scope of the works
- Provide a detailed specification
- Make sure you have a clear communication paper trail
- Be organised and in control
- Be quick to respond to variations and problems
- Under promise and over deliver
Quotes from the day
Andrew Wilson, Wilson McWilliam Associates, “It is often the client that is the weakest link in the process. They have to be willing to join the journey with you. A full analysis of the space is crucial and clients should be steered away from using non words such as nice, good, ugly and beautiful in favour of descriptions like claustrophobic, hard, exhilarating, cosy, protective, sombre. The better the description of the space the better the design and in turn the communication to the client.”
Richard Barnard, Hilliers Landscapes
“The most successful show gardens are those where the designer has been there from start to finish. Show garden quality is achievable in real gardens – but it needs to be sustainable.”
Jill Crooks, Room 105 Design Partnership
“My definition of quality is a project that is fit for purpose, it meets expectations and is sustainable. It is crucial to understand clients expectations and good communication is essential.”
Paul Downer, Oakview Landscapes
“You can’t emphasise enough the importance of a good drawing as this goes a long way to helping clients visualise your vision. It is often taken for granted the clients can visualise but this is often not the case.”
Chris Deakin, Deakin Lock Garden Design
“You need to take the client on the journey with you as things evolve and changes made on site. To do this they do need to put trust in you and the process.”
The secrets of success for an award winning garden
The benefits to be gained from an award winning garden are far reaching. Not only do they allow you to let people know that they are a successful company but they enable you to benchmark your own work year on year. Recognition through an award is a great way of boosting staff morale as each team member has the opportunity to share the success. Using last year’s APL supreme winning garden from The Garden Makers, chair of APL Award judges, Mark Gregory, provides a run down of the key factors that help to ensure success.
First and foremost it is essential to show the skills and resources of the contractor – and in particular the technical skills of construction and the detail. You need to tell a story and sell the whole package rather than just the component parts. With the standards of the projects and the presentation of projects increasing year on year you need to make time to enter awards. Hasty photocopies thrown together are not adequate and quality photographs, even using a professional photographer, are of paramount importance in order to show a project off to its full potential. Entering the awards is an investment rather than a cost and the returns in terms of PR, profile, marketing, staff morale and business can be great. The more effort you put in the more you get out! See page ? for further details about entering this year.
Green Walling – here to stay
Mike Cottage from Greenfix Sky-Garden presented an informative talk about green walling and green roofs. Set to become ever more popular as a way of introducing greenery into urban environments the benefits of green walling are multiple. As well as being a low maintenance and aesthetic pleasing way of cladding a building they help to combat climate change and mitigate the ‘heat island’ effect and produce additional habitat for wildlife. Low maintenance walls constructed with sedum provide a high impact feature requiring minimal maintenance and pruning. By contrast some of amazing walls created by green walling pioneer Patrick Blanc, such as the one outside the Museum of France in Paris which features ornamental plants, are far more sophisticated in terms of the water management required to ensure they succeed.
The effects of green walling are impressive. It has been shown that they can reduce the surface temperature of a building by up to 50%, they can reduce the air conditioning requirement of a building by 70% and the shading they produce can reduce the heating requirements of a building by 25%. This demonstrates the enormous tangible benefits of green walling – increasing aesthetics and reducing the amount of dust and pollutants in the air. Aspect is the key to the choice of plants to be used but green walls can be made from ferns, sedums, alpines, irises and orchids, ornamental and herbaceous plants.
Green walls are a high value product costing around £400 per square metre. However, this compares favourably to cedar cladding which costs £700 per square metre. The plants, which take a minimum of six months to grow, are grown flat and then brought up to the aspect which they will be planted at – to ensure that they acclimatise before being placed in situ. Green walls are here to stay and as the demand for them increases the better they will become.
For further information see www.sky-garden.co.uk or contact Mike Cottage at Greenfix Sky-Gardens. Email: mike.cottage@sky-garden.co.uk
Summing up the day Jason Lock, APL CEO comments,
‘As a designer coming from a design and build background I believe the interaction between contractor and designer is vital for a successful contract/project, as highlighted at the conference. It was clear that communication is a key factor in delivering quality and this is only achievable through both the designer and contractor working closely together. As CEO of the APL and a Registered Member of the SGD, it is obvious that we should be encouraging our members to network and to build working relationships at events like these or at a local level – on both sides there is a wealth of knowledge to be shared, something which I believe is fundamental and quite unique to the industry we work in, therefore should be grasped with both hands.’
Many thanks to Capel Manor College for hosting the event and to Steve Dowbiggin and his team for the fascinating guided tour of the show gardens onsite.
Stop Press
Next years APL/SGD workshop will take place on Thursday 23rd September. Put the date in your diary now!!
