Landscape Design for Historic Homes

Designing landscapes for historic homes requires special care and attention. Historic homes offer a wealth of details to borrow from, complement, and contrast, and many of the materials readily available today in the landscape trade do not reflect the quality, durability or dignity of the home. Special care should be paid to the materials, forms, scale and motifs of both the home and new landscape. While there are many well known architectural styles of homes, landscapes do not always so readily fall into those same categories, and many of the original landscapes of historic home have been lost to time and change.

Materials

Many people are attracted to older homes by their use of natural materials that were once the only choice in construction. There is something strange about using plastic that looks like wood, or concrete that looks like stone, rather than simply using wood or stone. Clay brick patios and terraces are an obvious natural choice with many brick homes, but these homes often have other material details that can be mirrored in the landscape. Sandstone and limestone lintels above windows, copper gutters and flashing all suggest materials that can be incorporated into the landscape in terraces, furniture, pottery, etc. Stone facades of homes can be mimicked in the landscape materials, whether they be used in the same finish, or with a contrasting cut or preparation.

Scale

Pay attention to the scale of the home. Historic homes often used much wider materials in places like porch posts, window trims, gutters and lintels, and much smaller materials in places like flooring and window glazing. Using landscape materials that have a similar scale to features on the home can help the two sit more comfortably side by side. Giant pavers or retaining wall blocks, often seem strange next to brick facades.

Form

Look carefully at the form (or shapes) used in your home. Many historic architects and designers were careful to use repeated forms in their design. What is the shape of the roof? What are the shapes of the windows? Is the home rectangular, square, triangular? Do the lines of the home move vertically or horizontally? Is the home symmetrical, or asymmetrical? All of these things can help you design a layout for your landscape that compliments the home.

Motif

Historic homes often incorporate more details and decoration into their design than contemporary homes. This might be on the outside of the home, carved into lintels above the windows, on porch posts, or in important places in the home like fireplaces, dining rooms, moldings, cabinets, around windows, or in other important portions of the home that visitors would see. These motifs can be important motivation or insspiration for landscape design.

Paying close attention to the materials, scale, form and motifs of a home can help a landscape designer design something that fits the beauty and dignity of a historic home. I hope that this article has been helpful - if you have any questions, or are interested in discussing a project please reach out to me on my contact page.