Studio: international art (87.1924)

“ MOOR CLOSE” GARDEN, BIN-
FIELD. 0 0 0 0 0

THE excellent work accomplished,
during recent years, by the newer
school of garden designers in this country
reveals a determined effort to shed the
hampering influence of bad conventions.
A garden scheme should be devised
primarily to provide the best possible
setting for the great variety of plants and
shrubs which are available nowadays and
which are more or less indispensable in a
garden of any consequence. An intimate
acquaintance with the character and habits
of these plants is essential if satisfactory
results are to be obtained, as the main
interest and charm of a garden should be
the result of skilful grouping to obtain
pleasing compositions with harmonious
distribution of colour and effective contrast
of form and foliage. The value of varying
levels as an aid to composition is generally
appreciated, and some designers show
great ingenuity in turning to account

natural gradients and irregularities. Formal
constructional features, if judiciously intro-
duced, and not allowed to dominate the
chief function of the garden, can un-
doubtedly add materially to the charm of
a well thought-out scheme, while providing
scope for the designer's individuality and
inventiveness. 0000

A happy combination of natural and
formal elements is shown in the illustrations
of “ Moor Close ” Garden, designed by
Mr. Oliver Hill, whose work as an architect
is already known to our readers. An
interesting house designed by him was
illustrated in the April number of the
Studio, 1923. That he also understands
the art of laying out a garden is clear from
the work he has accomplished at Binfield.

The house, which these gardens sur-
round, has been in process of re-building
during the last few years, and the garden
scheme has beenundertakensimultaneously.

The general level was a running slope
down from west to east. It was desirable
to retain a few mature trees in their

28

(a) garden of "moor close”

BINFIELD. ARCHITECT, OLIVER HILL