Just as our homes reflect their sense of place, so do our gardens. The outdoor environment beautifies the home, improves our quality of life, extends the dwelling’s overall footprint and can even deliver self-sufficiency with the opportunity to grow our own food.

As part of this year’s best of est series, we take a closer look at the hard and soft landscaping in five of our favourite landscape projects, exploring how residential and landscape architecture achieve a seamless design resolution.

Proudly supported by Winnings

Cove Hollow House

Laguardia Design Group

Situated in East Hampton, New York, on a 10,000 square feet site, Cove Hollow House represents a fusion of new and old. New York-based firm Architecture Outfit created a multi-generational compound by combining an existing 100-year-old farmhouse with a series of supplementary buildings, including a contemporary home and pool house. 

Landscape architecture firm Laguardia Design Group lifted inspiration from the agricultural setting of the original farmhouse to reveal two expansive gardens. A more formal lawn and pool space to the north and an organic, relaxed garden to the south. A newly implemented geothermal well offers heating and cooling while well-chosen indigenous vegetation conserves the existing atmosphere. 

Fitzroy Bridge House

Robyn Barlow Design

Located in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Matt Gibson Architecture & Design take an unconventional approach to renovating this heritage-listed terrace home. Here, designing a series of semi-isolated pavilions connected by courtyards (rather than extending the existing footprint) unlocked both unique architectural and landscape moments.

Answering the landscape brief, Robyn Barlow Design maximised the natural light and environment through a series of courtyards. The home’s central hub – the landscaped zen-like courtyard with pond – creates a tranquil, oriental-inspired indoor-outdoor environment.

Concrete, marble and timber flooring used in the open living spaces seamlessly integrate with the outdoor materiality, further enhancing the connection. 

Toorak Residence

Jack Merlo

Designed by architecture firm ADDARC, Toorak Residence saw one of Melbourne’s most notable landscape architects Jack Merlo play both client and designer. This deep black, monolithic three-storey home shared with his husband Ricardo and their twin children evokes dramatic intrigue from every angle.   

To balance large formal gatherings, quiet family time and visiting relatives, Toorak Residence expands and contracts through a series of indoor and outdoor spaces. Externally, minimalism and restrained opulence are key themes in the overarching design. Yet there’s a clear balance between a functional yet formal garden. A combination of manicured gardens, climbing tumbling foliage, and Madagascar jasmine (dressing the steel arbour door frames) injects colour and contrast. At the same time, almost every vantage point within the home offers some form of affinity to the moving greenery beyond. 

Mandeville Canyon

Christine London

Nestled in the hills of Los Angeles, California, on 19,000 square feet stands Mandeville Canyon. Designed by Los Angeles architectural firm Walker Workshop and interior design studio Jamie Bush + Co, the home is crafted with the outdoor environment firmly in mind; an open plan dissolving the boundaries between inside and outside.

Minimally furnished and deliberately pared-back, Mandeville Canyon is deeply connected to its expansive vistas. West Hollywood-based landscape firm Christine London took full advantage of Mandeville’s rolling hills, views of Santa Monica’s beaches and Mandeville canyon. An indoor 75 feet indoor lap pool complements a more extravagant outdoor pool set on 25,000 square feet of yard space.

Travertine, white oak, terracotta and western red cedar form the base of Mandeville. Christine London leans on this rustically refined theme with graceful yet undemanding, low-maintenance greenery – mirroring the home’s surrounding hills and trees. A vegetable garden, large grassed areas and spaces for a quiet retreat among the flora complete the estate.

Vaucluse House

Dangar Barin Smith

Located on Sydney harbour, Vaucluse House represents an Australian interpretation of a Mediterranean-style home. As a joint venture between two architectural studios, MHNDUnion collaborated with Burley Katon Halliday to reimagine a functional home, including an outdoor oasis for a family of five. 

In the capable hands of Sydney landscape architectural firm Dangar Barin Smith, garden design decisions were guided by the site and climatic conditions. The living space at Vaucluse House opens spectacularly onto a balcony – designed to take advantage of the iconic Sydney harbour bridge panorama – connecting the home to its landscape. A large overhang from the upper level provides welcome shade. 

The family pool is a deliberate surprise hidden behind a robust tropical hedge. Strategically placed foliage is specified to offer privacy in this garden space from a neighbouring building. Dangar Barin Smith have ensured the various areas of the garden, including the rear courtyard, sunken fire pit and front entry, feature endemic natives, again delivering a strong connection to place.