ALL GOOD DESIGN MUST FLOW

And it’s certainly the parks and open spaces where FLOW excels. In the past 5 years alone, FLOW has designed and overseen the construction on more than 50 community parks, open projects and more.

Parks and playgrounds are the specialty of the open realm projects, especially where trees can be utilised to their best advantage.

Take the Crownlea Park 1 and 2 – these sister parks in Warragul’s newest residential community are a prime example of how clever landscape design, coupled with horticultural expertise, come together to make poetry in motion.

In the first park, the designers saw an opportunity to ulitise trees to create natural pergolas and summer shade over picnic tables. Working closely with sister company Fleming’s Nurseries and their expert team of tree growers, FLOW requested trees to be grown in a pleached form, looking very much like an umbrella. Installed in the park, the umbrella trees grow together and form an excellent shade when the trees are in leaf. In winter, when natural light is preferred, the deciduous trees lose their leaves and allow sun into the space.

This was first achieved at the Clydevale central park where Wes Fleming saw the need to use trees in picnic spacers as natural canopy and shade cover. 

FLOW often works closely with the Wes' team at Fleming's Nurseries to ensure the right trees and plants find the right location and are used to their best effect. The balance is always to ensure that there is a strong and appropriate balance between evergreen, native and ornamental trees, so that a space will provide seasonal interest, but never feel bare or empty.

Another great example of trees used well in a park is the Redstone Main Park located in Sunbury. Here FLOW created a plan featuring large mature trees in prime location to ensure the park benefited from shade and a sense of maturity before many of the residents of the estate even moved in.

Small park reserves also benefit from FLOW’s clever horticultural design outcomes. With space being a premium, the team like to see as many trees and greenery in place as possible, often using trees to replace built form making living tee-pees, garden edging that replaces walking beams, sensory plants that help kids engage with nature, without them even noticing they are doing it.

In short, landscape design should be about the landscape, about how the outdoor space appeals and enhances the environment, making the people that experience the space feel relaxed, calm and comfortable. Good landscape design should FLOW!

Visit FLOW Design Studio via the links below to learn more