CURVILINEAR DESIGN
The Art of the Purposeful Curve
This month, we're diving into one of the most beautiful and sometimes challenging… concepts in garden design: CURVILINEAR DESIGN.
A curvilinear garden is not just a landscape with squiggly lines. It is a garden where curves are doing the work…capturing space, defining rooms, and creating areas that feel relaxed and inviting. The difference between a wiggly bedline and a sweeping, confident arc is all about understanding the purpose of the curve.
In this month's guide, we'll walk through a simple, step-by-step approach to designing with curves. We'll cover how to think about garden structure, how to use lines of force as a scaffold, plus how to draw curves that feel purposeful and graceful rather than arbitrary.
Whether you are exploring curvilinear design for the first time or you've used it for years, this guide will give you a new process and way of seeing the spaces you create.
Let's get curvy!
GOODNESS FOR YOU THIS MONTH
Below you will find several items to help you learn more about CURVILINEAR DESIGN. From written words to video to applied activities to our Design Library to group discussions. Explore our topic from different angles and gain a new perspective. Click below to download a PDF of your Garden Design Guide, plus click through to find a landing page that explains the activity. Further down you will find a video and links to our community, plus our live Monthly Meetup!
VIDEO: How I Draw a Curvilinear Design
This video shows how how I approached this month's activity. Make sure to download the activity above for more details.
RESOURCES in our DESIGN LIBRARY
Below are some past Garden Design Guides to help you with this month's topic.
GARDEN ROOMS
Garden rooms are the basic unit of landscape design and an important concept to understand as you make connections between indoor and outdoor spaces.
LINES OF FORCE
This Garden Design Guide explains a technique to build strong geometry and lines in your landscape, while also unifying it with existing architecture.
SHAPE in SPATIAL DESIGN
Once you know the function of your garden room, you can start defining the ground plane with a SHAPE. The shape is the two-dimensional outline of the floor plane.
OUR COMMUNITY
Don't forget to hang out with us this month.
Check in to share your activity. Try it yourself and/or learn from the submissions of your peers. No need to stress. Just enjoy!
ACTIVITIES:
DESIGN A CURVILINEAR BACKYARD
We have two possible activities: either choose an inspiration photo or go all in and practice curvilinear design by creating a simple garden plan for a small residential backyard. Click below to learn about both.
Do you have a question?
Do you have a question on this month's topic or another design question? Let's all learn together!
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Click below to add it to our community.
Moved closer to a goal?
Share your win with us.
Tell us what you’ve done this month that got you one step closer to your dream...we’re ready to celebrate with you!
LIVE SESSIONS
We have one live meetup this month. This will be recorded in case you can't make it (then posted right back here). Check out all UPCOMING MEETUPS here.
Monthly MeetUp
Let's catch up on this month's topic, plus share our activities. I can't wait to see you!
Tuesday, June 23
2 PM PT | 3 PM MT | 4 PM CT | 5 PM ET
London: 10 PM BST
Sydney: June 24 at 7 AM AEST
Let's Connect in a Small Group Session
I'm excited to invite you to a small group session where we can get to know each other better. Each session will last one hour and include up to four participants, along with myself.
Please sign up for one available time slot that suits your schedule. Next dates: June 3 + July 8
Looking forward to our conversation!
I'd love your feedback once you've devoured all this goodness.
Drop me a note at the email below and let me know what you loved and what could be improved. Thank you!
Please contact me at hello@papergardenworkshop.com
