A local Houston art collector hired us to create a low maintenance, sophisticated, contemporary landscape design. She wanted her property to compliment her eclectic taste in architecture, outdoor sculpture, and modern art. Her house was built with a minimalist approach to decoration, emphasizing right angles and windows instead of architectural keynotes. The west wing of the house was only one story, while the east wing was two-story. The windows in both wings were larger than usual, so that visitors could see her art collection from the home’s exterior. Near one of the large rear windows, there was an abstract metal sculpture designed in the form of a spiral. When she initially contacted us, the surrounding property had only a few trees and indigenous grass as vegetation. This was actually a good beginning point with us, because it allowed us to develop a contemporary landscape design that featured a very linear, crisp look supportive of the home and its contents. We began by planting a garden around the large contemporary sculpture near the window. Landscape designers planted horsetail reed under windows, along the sides of the home, and around the corners. This vegetation is very resilient and hardy, and requires little trimming, weeding, or mulching. This helped unite the diverse elements of sculpture, contemporary architecture, and landscape design into a more fluid harmony that preserved the proportions of each unique element, but eliminated any tendency for the elements to clash with one another. We then added two stonework designs to the landscape surrounding the contemporary art collection and home. The first was a linear walkway we build from concrete pads purchased through a retail vendor as a cost-saving benefit to our client. We created this walkway to follow the perimeter of the home so that visitors could walk around the entire property and admire the outdoor sculptures and the collections of modern art visible through the windows. This was especially enjoyable at night, when the entire home was brightly lit from within. To add a touch of tranquility and quite repose to the stark right angles of the home and surrounding contemporary landscape, we designed a special seating area toward the northwest corner of the property. We wanted to create a sense of contemplation in this area, so we departed from the linear and angular designs of the surrounding landscape and established a theme of circular geometry. We laid down gravel as ground cover, then placed large, circular pads arranged like giant stepping stones that led up to a stone patio filled with chairs. The shape of the granite pads and the contours of the graveled area further complimented the spirals and turns in the outdoor metal sculpture, and balanced the entire contemporary landscape design with proportional geometric forms of lines, angles, and curves. This particular contemporary landscape design also has a sense of movement attached to it. All stonework leads to a destination of some sort. The linear pathway provides a guided tour around the home, garden, and modern art collection. The granite pathway stones create movement toward separate space where the entire experience of art, vegetation, and architecture can be viewed and experienced as a unity. Contemporary landscaping designs like create form out of feeling by using basic geometric forms and variations of forms. Sometimes very stark forms are used to create a sense of absolutism or contrast. At other times, forms are blended, or even distorted to suggest a sense of complex emotion, or a sense of multi-dimensional reality. The exact nature of the design is always highly subjective, and developed on a case-by-case basis with the client.

Images by Dean Homicki
Small contemporary courtyard partial sun outdoor sport court in Melbourne with natural stone pavers for spring.

This is an example of a mid-sized modern front yard partial sun outdoor sport court for spring in San Francisco with natural stone pavers.

Inspiration for an expansive traditional sloped full sun outdoor sport court for spring in San Francisco with gravel and a retaining wall.

Design ideas for a mid-sized traditional side yard full sun outdoor sport court for spring in Nashville with a retaining wall and natural stone pavers.

You want the best for your family, but no family is just like the other. We have an extensive range of customizable features that will make your backyard court or home gym unlike any other.

A view from the kitchen window, looking out. You'd never guess this property is less than a mile from the dreaded Terwilliger Curves. Photography by: Joe Hollowell

Aloe Ferox in the background, Penstemon, Verbena and Desert Marigold in the foreground. A great attraction for the Humming birds. Pascale Sucato
Design ideas for a large mediterranean courtyard outdoor sport court for spring in Phoenix with gravel.

This is an example of a large tropical courtyard full sun outdoor sport court for spring in Miami with a garden path and gravel.

design: Studio TOOP and TOOP tuinhuisjes, 2013 location: Wilp, NL status: spring 2014, TOOP tuinhuisjes, Weldam Groenprojecten, Van Bert (Bert Jan Siebesma) en OSH Hoveniers photo: Joanne Schweitzer, July 2014 An irregular lot, the challenge was to come up with a way to connect all its corners and sections. The pergola in the same style as the new veranda (pilot project for www.tooptuinhuisjes.nl) helps link the back section with the rest, as do the repeating benches. The planting is used to fill the space inbetween that winds organically around the structures. The paving is mostly crushed shells with alternating sizes of Schellevis pavers in the patio areas. The sunken trampoline and the room for sleep overs in the veranda make the garden extra popular with the kids in the neighborhood.

This is an example of a small modern backyard partial sun outdoor sport court for spring in Seattle with concrete pavers.

Sport Court St. Louis, resurfaced tennis court to make multi-purpose. Designed to play basketball, volleyball, and tennis. Features adjustable net system that easily converts from tennis to volleyball. Located in Clayton. Sport Court Powergame in Terra Cotta and Evergreen with White Tennis Lines, Black Volleyball Lines and Gray Basketball Lines

This is an example of an expansive traditional sloped full sun outdoor sport court for spring in San Francisco with a retaining wall and gravel.

This is an example of an expansive traditional backyard shaded outdoor sport court for spring in St Louis with a garden path and brick pavers.

Rich Cox Photography
Photo of a small country front yard partial sun outdoor sport court for spring in Santa Barbara with concrete pavers.

Jeri Koegel
This is an example of a large mediterranean backyard full sun outdoor sport court for spring in Los Angeles with brick pavers.

Walpole Garden, Chiswick Photography by Caroline Mardon - www.carolinemardon.com
Photo of a small traditional courtyard partial sun outdoor sport court for spring in London with brick pavers.

It's simply amazing how different an outdoor space can look in a matter of hours. ...and low-voltage night lighting is a simple add-on to most outdoor living environments. Photography by: Joe Hollowell

In the front of the house, a large cherry tree that was left in place when the front yard was redesigned shelters the path to a spacious outdoor seating and dining area. Designed by H. Paul Davis Landscape Architects. ©Melissa Clark Photography. All rights reserved.