Project of the Month: Conceptual curves

The owner hired an architect to improve the front of the house, which is pictured at right in its "before" state. Inspired by a landscape design she saw in southern California, the owner commissioned Rick Laughlin to create a similar look using different materials.

The tall ornamental grass creates a sense of mystery as one approaches the front door, gradually revealing a rectangular fish pond.

Overlapping architectural forms on the house are repeated in the rectangular entrance concrete slabs. This circulation pattern continues parallel to the house leading toward the back yard. Aromatic thyme softens the spaces between the concrete slabs en route to the front door.

The owner wanted the predominantly turfgrass front yard, as depicted at left, converted into a water-wise landscape. The house sits on a broad curving circle.

Laughlin was inspired by the curve in the property, and repeated this form in the plantings, which add some movement to the composition.