The Column Group Rock Garden
Overview
In March 2020, we were approached by Garcia Tamjidi with the opportunity to design a Japanese-inspired rock garden to be installed in a commercial work environment. This was a unique project that played upon Brent’s early days as a garden designer and highlighted our strengths to manage a project through visual and digital communication. The gardens were prototyped in our studio, documented through photos, measurements, and drawings. All materials were prepared in studio, including washing the gravel and sealing the rocks, to be ready for install directly upon delivery to San Francisco. Finally, we developed a clear instruction document explaining how to position and orient the rocks in the gardens.
read more
Traditionally, these gardens are designed with a specific viewing point to observe from but we intentionally designed this garden to embrace the movement and dynamism of the surrounding environment to create a journey; utilizing the scale of rocks to represent a valley leading to foothills and then mountains. Each stone was carefully selected and arranged to create a sense of balance from multiple angles.
There are 2 gardens in the space; the first of which is long and narrow divided by a panel of glass, greeting you at the front entrance. This garden is inspired by the experience of “travelling through”, representing foothills with the first 2 rocks sloping towards the third and the last rock surfacing with an anchoring sense of calmness, transitioning the story from the “journey” to “arrival”.
The second garden peaks just around the corner with 2 rocks with relating geometry, as if they had split apart from each other in the movement of tectonic plates. These are mountainous islands that drifted apart from the foothills, to symbolize the dynamic nature of coastal environments.
