The San Francisco-based landscape architecture and urban design firm reinvents and holistically consolidates the links between the built environment and the landscape. Focus on two projects.
"Yes, it's a different adventure", says Surfacedesign's tagline on its website. The office, co-founded by Geoff di Girolamo, James Lord and Roderick Wyllie, has been designing projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hawaii, Mexico and New Zealand for over twenty years. His aim is to reconnect people with their built environment, focusing on personal stories and the links between culture and landscape.
The results are as good as his vision. And then some. Dynamic parks, waterfronts, residential gardens, cultural and airport landscapes, community gathering spaces... The multidisciplinary team offers a wide range of designs that earned them, among others, the 2017 National Design Award for Landscape Architecture from Cooper Hewitt and the Smithsonian Design Museum.
MODERNISM IN THE HEART OF NATURE
Spring Road is a feast for the eyes. The architecture demonstrates the strength of the landscape, situated between the oak savannah and redwood forests of Ross, a small town north of San Francisco. The project celebrates the meeting of two Northern California ecologies and the traditions of Californian modernism, reinforcing the connections between inside and outside. "In the front courtyard, ferns and groundcovers amplify the redwood understory and create both a sensual strolling garden and a sense of enclosure for the rooms overlooking the garden," explains the studio.
Monoliths of basalt (volcanic magmatic rock) grace the entrance. They create a geological abstraction in the panorama, while reinforcing the architectural alignments. The reflective infinity pool enlivens the rear patio with the shadows of oak and redwood trees. The elevated spa and fireplace complete the project's splendor, transcending the panoramic mountain view.
TO THE FLOWER GARDENS
The design of Zinfandel Lane shows a different approach. This residence in St Helena is set in one of Napa Valley's historic vineyards, where plantings complement the surrounding landscape. A gravel driveway lined with olive trees frames the entrance, with an oak tree at its heart marking the central axis of the property, pool and barn.
The poetic, luminous images of this agricultural heritage feel as if they've stepped straight out of a 19th-century landscape painting. "Nepeta flowers and "Little Bunny" grasses bloom in early spring, followed by a flurry of summer colors from agastache, perovskia, lavender and gaura," the architects point out. "As for the Moon Garden, framing the teak porch at the entrance, it is composed of a series of white flowers that reflect the light of the moon."
Two other gardens continue to honor the vernacular. The first is filled with fragrant citrus and mint on the patio, while the second, larger garden surrounds the long swimming pool, where perennials bring butterflies and hummingbirds.
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