Patrick Lo Chiatto — 1870 Design Group
landscape and architectural design
Menlo Park residence (Photo 1) - A contemporary Japanese Landscape Garden whose secluded character belies its controlled scale.
This garden draws its form from 17th century Japanese landscape paintings, soft curves visually expanding it with a restrained plant palette designed to reflect the changing seasons. This newly built home began with a flat, empty landscape requiring extensive site work to realize the design, tons of soil and boulders brought in to create the rise and fall of a natural landscape. The centerpiece of the design is a five ton boulder carved into a water feature, focusing the entire garden with its strength of form and presence, expressing the underlying idea of the garden as a reflection of the wider natural world.