In a world of infinite possibilities, how does one go about creating a landscape project that complements the specific needs of an adjacent commercial building? Beyond the usual issues of style, how do hardscape choices influence the end user’s experience? In this article, we will be taking a look at a few lesser-known considerations and strategies that could inspire or inform your next landscape project.
Accessible design should be a top priority when creating outdoor and indoor amenities that are to be used by a broad range of people. Although paved surfaces tend to be smooth, not all pavers are appropriate for people with disabilities. Permeable pavers, for example, are designed to have broad joints to increase water infiltration rates and provide a sustainable rainwater management solution. These same joints may prove difficult or uncomfortable to roll or walk on for someone using a wheelchair or a walker. The solution: creating a network of walkways that connects all access points and amenities using ADA-compliant pavers. You can consult the “Typical Application Usage” chart that is part of the Design Playground in our Techo-Spec to make sure that the paver you selected is appropriate for your project. No need to worry — we offer a broad range of ADA-compliant pavers, which includes the ever-versatile Industria collection. Industria’s slim joints provide a smooth surface to walk on for a range of users with different mobility requirements. Incidentally, these slim joints also give it its signature clean-and-modern look.
For projects where guarding against potential slips and falls is particularly important, consider using a rougher texture such as Granitex. The Granitex texture is granular but uniform, making it both easy to roll on and slip-proof. Taking texture into account will allow you to develop a better user experience around retirement homes, hospitals, or anywhere with wet or icy weather.
We mentioned earlier that ADA-compliant pavers don’t usually make for great permeable applications, due to the broad joints required for water infiltration. There are, however, a few exceptions. Amongst them, the smooth and modern Hydra paver, as well as the smaller formats of the Blu collection. Permeable pavers are becoming ubiquitous. They offer a sustainable solution for responsible stormwater management, help prevent flooding, help avoid discharging overflowing sewers into neighboring water bodies, and filter water before it percolates back into the local aquifer. They also offer a lesser-known benefit — they prevent snow and ice build-up. The snow is drained as it melts under the winter midday sun, preventing the leftover water from freezing up again at nightfall.
Permeable pavers present an untapped well of possibilities for northern living. They offer a way to embrace colder climates and keep the city’s outdoor spaces alive, even in the dead of winter. The significant reduction of ice can make walking safer and more accessible, while also reducing the environmental impacts of snow removal. Less snow removal means fewer greenhouse gases, lower maintenance costs, and less de-icing salt and snow-plow traffic, both of which can damage architectural materials and surrounding planting beds. Permeable pavers can even be heated, to provide a worry-free and safe, no-shoveling-required surface all year round.
Heated permeable pavers are great for an outdoor winter spa experience, where water around thermal baths could easily become a slip hazard, or where using salt or gravel would hurt patron’s feet or end up in the filtration systems. Heated pavers would also enhance the experience of walking barefoot between each thermal station.
Recent years have seen a rise in the popularity of seemingly “wild” planting schemes. Planting beds are no longer simply designed to be ornamental or experiential — they are now being put to work, providing solutions to the challenges of the 21st century. They are designed with environmental benefits in mind. These plantings foster native biodiversity, aid in stormwater management, and filter the air, making them a low-cost green technology. Unfortunately, some people equate these dense, complex plantings with a lack of maintenance. Most of us are used to manicured lawns and carefully trimmed shrubbery. In our gardens, individual plants are kept separate and tame with the use of plastic edges, mulch, pesticides, and weed pullers.
How then, do we increase the attractiveness of these new, beneficial planting strategies? The answer is simple: we frame them. Adequate framing brings order to these seemingly chaotic plant arrangements. Framing also provides another critical benefit; it delivers a subtle but clear cue to the passerby that lets them know that this is intentional; that this urban prairie is meant to look that way, and that it is not merely a by-product of a lack of maintenance. For this effect to work at its best, the frame must provide maximum contrast with the planting. The clean, sharp lines of modern pavers counterbalance the softer, organic forms of low herbaceous plantings well. The high contrast turns the planting into a form set against a hardscape background in a figure-ground relationship, or vice versa, depending on which of the two you would like to bring attention to.
These hardscape frames offer more than one function: by elevating them with wall blocks, they not only contain your wilder planting schemes, but also create a seating ledge. The vegetation at the back of these “benches” shelters users and gives them a greater feeling of psychological comfort. The Borealis wall module, for example, is easy to stack into a deep seating ledge, and provides the look of wood without having to worry about rot and distortion over time.
The North American city center is often a landscape of tall office buildings, filled with the hustle and bustle of workers going about their daily tasks. The height of these buildings provides people with a different view of the city than that which they experience by walking or by using their cars — the city seen from above. In this instance, the landscape is only seen. The user is cut off from the sounds, smells, and the immersive experience of the space. Think of a patient confined to a hospital room, who enjoys looking out the window to relieve their boredom; of a hotel patron taking in the surrounding city as they first enter their room, and how that view affects their opinion of the hotel; or even an at-home worker sipping their morning coffee from their apartment balcony, looking down at the neighborhood plaza. Their experience of the landscape is completely different than that of someone walking through it and yet is still as valid. They are experiencing it like a painting. What if an empty parking lot became a work of art, rather than just a barren asphalt space? Or what if a market square revealed an intricate mosaic when not in use?
For these mosaics to be noticed from high up, they must be clear and contrasting. Consider using very dark colors (such as Onyx Black) mixed with light colors (like Greyed Nickel) for maximum effect. Pavers with hard edges also aid in legibility (no tumbled or rounded finishes here). If you want the design to really call out attention, think about using pavers with sharp angles, such as Diamond, or the Industria 300 x 300 Triangle. These will allow you to create irregular shapes, diagonals, or even enable you to create 3D illusions.
Here’s another trick: the smaller the paver, the easier it is to render a complex mosaic. Think of it as the resolution of your screen — the more pixels, the more detail. The square Industria 150x150 paver is the perfect base unit with which to draw. For pedestrian spaces, Squadra offers an even smaller option that is also better suited for creating intricate curves.
As you’ve surely pieced together by now, there’s more to hardscapes than meets the eye. Like any other material, pavers and modular building blocks have the power to embody a creator’s concept and affect the experience of the end-user. There is a paver for every space and every intention. Please look to our Commercial Catalog or consult the myriad of design resources available on our website for more ideas on how to use hardscape to serve your design intent.