The Gestalt.

The  Gestalt. The unified whole.

The reason you hire a landscape architect or any designer worth their salt is for the Gestalt. That at the end of the day the design, a complete thought, a summation of the individual parts, equals something fully contrived into an experience that is tailored to you. 

If you spend a lot of time around me, especially when I am designing, you will hear me say something about the gestalt at least once. A great example of someone executing this well is the tv show Fixer Upper. A great example of someone doing this poorly is the original Flip or Flop. 

Now understand HGTV is one of my guilty pleasures. My favorite thing to do is make fun of the people on House Hunters or pick apart the design decisions the designers make on the various Flip or Flop shows HGTV has produced. Fixer Upper uses nice materials in an inconspicuous way that subtlety ties the design of the house together. They are looking to create a unique design and you can tell. The home is tailored to the client. Flip or Flop on the other hand...well, it is the worst at this. Their designs are gaudy. They overuse the most ridiculous materials throughout the property to a point that makes me nauseous.

When I am talking about the gestalt for a site I am describing the little parts of the design that unify the different areas. The seemingly contrite details become important when they are a viewed as one large entity.

In other news..I'm currently working on the details for that fireplace and the rest of site. So I won't have any new images to share for a week or so. People do not realize that there is a lot of work that goes into developing details. It will probably take me most of this next week to get those put together especially since two of them will be completely new details.

(Disclaimer, my opinions are my own about HGTV. I have not been paid to review or endorse any of their shows)