Garden By Block creates green spaces focusing on aesthetics and functionality.
A garden designer who stands forefront of digital tools in an otherwise traditional industry.
John Block, the company's CEO, and owner strive to create attractive, well-designed, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor environments. - We create green spaces focusing on aesthetics and functionality where the client is at the center. Garden By Block AB stays at the forefront of digital tools in an otherwise traditional industry. Aesthetics, harmony, and composition are essential elements in garden design that must endure despite today's modern tools. This is where SketchUp is a significant part of the work to create a clear spatial sense of the place already in the computer creating greater space for creativity.
"You as a designer have the opportunity to create new angles for the customer. Dare to propose slightly wilder ideas and then back off if necessary. Otherwise, fantastic solutions and features can be wasted.”
Project - ”Trädgård vid bergsravinen”
A different long narrow plot with a mountain wall at the far end. Here, footpaths and other functions must adapt to the location. As the building permit obligations were somewhat tight, we designed the pool area as large concrete surfaces with stair-like solutions instead of retaining walls—a well-shaped garden. Wishes included pool and pool area, greenhouse location, hen house location, and bicycle storage. A reasonably complicated task given the steep slope and the fact that the entire site was also on a slope. I solved it by finding the elevations using existing elevation curves and SketchUp. There I could start to build up the various terracing and find suitable locations for the various buildings. The garden had to land in a string of pearls with several "holding points" with walkways between them.
Project - ”Trädgård i ekbacke”
A sloping natural site would remain after house construction and gardening were completed. Even if the surfaces are new, they must imitate the surrounding environment in the plot's absolute vicinity, consisting of scrubby shrubbery, meadow vegetation, and large pines, oaks, and birches. Here, most of the plot is provided with a new forest mat, i.e. a finished vegetation mat that contains moss, heather, blueberries, and lingonberries. New trees and shrubs follow a forest-like character and the new pool and pool area are cast in colored concrete to mimic a forest tarn. As the location of the trees is of great importance, I mark these with cylindrical objects in SketchUp which I then make "invisible" in Lumion.
Project - ”Trädgård med brutala inslag”
Here is a plot of land with terraces and slopes in between. The client was somewhat daring in his style and design language and wanted to think outside the box in the garden, which suited me perfectly. Hence the angular and well-shaped staircase up from the driveway in sharply cast concrete with recessed steps. Once up by the house, "laid out" pieces of concrete are poured like broken glass into the surrounding meadow vegetation. The site gets a clear room division where things happen everywhere. The important thing, however, is the way there. On mixed materials such as wood pavings, gravel, and concrete, you reach your goal. But the vegetation should not have to be deprioritized for that matter. Here, a well-composed arrangement occurs where humans live close to vegetation by Himalayan birches, pines, and meadow vegetation.
How long have you been working with SketchUp?
As a garden designer, I have been using SketchUp since 2013, both during my studies and as a garden designer. It has been a short time since I have used the program, I am entirely self-taught and have my working methods that develop all the time. But the program is so easy to use that I get more inspired.
How much of your workflow consists of SketchUp?
An average project consists of about 1-2/3 hours in SketchUp as I also sit in Adobe Illustrator and Lumion. But SketchUp is unbeatable when it comes to getting a clear picture of the "room" on-site. After working in SketchUp, revisions often occur in the other programs once you know heights and spatiality. And not infrequently I start "sketching" in SketchUp, i.e. playing with heights and room division, it is an advantage that you can quickly see which heights and lengths work for the location, which can be challenging to see in plan in some cases. Then I like to mirror SketchUp directly against Lumion, which is the rendering program I use. Their plug-in for SketchUp is smooth and easy to work with, even if you have later, revised versions.
I draw as much as possible on my MacBook, both illustrator and SketchUp. However, when it's time for Lumion, I change the computer to a more powerful PC and work on the rest of the project there.
What's the best thing about SketchUp?
SketchUp is an easy-to-use and understandable program focusing on what you create. It is a universal program that supports most file formats both in terms of import and export, which makes it easier when collaborating between a house architect and a garden designer, or in some cases when I have developed products such as sculptures, bicycle racks, and light bollards, I can easily export to the file formats that the manufacturer wish and if I want to take the program to a more advanced level, it is possible with many equally user-friendly plug-ins.
For other garden designers that wants to work smarter with SketchUp.
