Restoring Landscape in Harmony with nature
The initial situation was a narrow lakeside property measuring 6000 m² facing lake Starnberg with trimmed lawns cultivated like on neighbouring properties and a huge earth wall build by war prisoners towards lake starnberg.
The aim of the architect was to design a Gesamtkunstwerk where the Architecture has to express a strong relationship to nature in which the house is part of the natural environment. The House, a Boathouse, a Sauna, a Garage are loosely scattered on the site. The shoreline was renaturalised
The new natural waterline came closer to the house and enabled to build a boathouse despite tough restricting building regulations. In areas with old trees the earth wall could not be removed and was covered with a wooden deck and wild blooming Luzula grasses.
The lake site garden is an attempt to avoid complex garden design schemes, to avoid the use of vast amount of resources and to work only with few and only local plants.
Luzula, Dechampsia, Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Förster, Filipendula
To create a new ecological aesthetic between refinement and wilderness. A piece of the original lakeshore was reconstructed and poetically reinforced by gentle interventions. The existing lawn was eliminated by cutting the existing drainage allowing indigenous flora of the local marshes to thrive in its place.
A Fine balance between wild nature and manmade interventions was achieved. The mood of the adjacent Oster see lakes and its characteristic marshes was captured. Birches and grasses associate a Scandinavian atmosphere.
Few patches of trimmed lawns near the house give order and a frame for ellipse formed grass patches set like Japanese stones in a gravel field. Wooden walkways and terraces do not touch the ground. 40 Birch Trees and spruce were supplemented.
Project category: private garden
Role of the entrant in the project: garden designer and architects of the house
Project location: Lake Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany
Design year: 2011
Year Built: 2016