Living Land : The Gardens of Blasen Landscape Architecture

Living Land : The Gardens of Blasen Landscape Architecture
ISBN: 9781935935469
Publication Date: 1 February 2013

Blasen Landscape Architecture listens attentively for clients' thoughts on how they might most wish to live on their land, and builds gardens that provide a pristine and deeply-felt encounter with it. Interested in the psychological and aesthetic qualities of land, they work, essentially, to increase their clients' happiness. They start with the clients' dreams, and the land as it is: its natural or constructed shape, the qualities of its breezes, and the plants that are thriving there. The gardens in

Living Land are growing on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, in the valleys of the California coastal hills, in tight urban lots, and on spacious residential estates. Each is of a sophisticated and seamless high quality and demonstrates Eric and Silvina Blasens' ability to intensely intuit and beautifully forge a relevant, contemporary dynamic between architecture and land. Whether a wildflower meadow or a courtyard around a fireplace, the spaces are built sustainably and shine with a single quality: ease with the outdoors. These gardens help their owners live everyday in relation to the land.

About the Author

Eric Blasen, ASLA, studied Art History at the University of London, England, received his Bachelor of Science in Geography from Oregon State University and his Masters of Landscape Architecture from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He first explored practical design by making furniture and won his first design award for it. In 1993, he cofounded, with his wife, Silvina, Blasen Landscape Architecture, a design studio, in San Anselmo, California. The design team has created landscapes for places of worship, schools, corporate offices, and wineries, but its main focus is large residential gardens, for which it has garnered top American landscape architecture a...