There’s a slew of information out there on designing the inside of your house. And a person can drown in “how-to” material on fixing up the yard. But the notion of integrating the two – the interior and the landscape – is a foreign concept to most people, says architect Sarah Susanka, author of “The Not So Big House” ($23 Taunton, 2001).
Susanka recently spoke at Residential Design 2006, a trade show in Boston, with landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy. The two co-authored “Outside the Not So Big House” ($35, Taunton, 2006). Journalist Linda Matchan spoke with them about what they call the “landscape of home.”
Moir: You seem to be saying that, in American homes, the twain isn’t really meeting between inside and outside?
Susanka: There is a great divide between architecture and interior design on one hand, and landscape design on the other. Both are done beautifully but there is very rarely a connection, or maybe a very vague connection. But “home” really means both.
Moir: Why do Americans see this so distinctly?
Messervy: It’s odd. If you look at Japan, the house and garden are completely intertwined … The house easily opens up to the landscape, and the landscape interrelates with the house. It might be that we’ve had so much land that we haven’t had to value it as much as the Japanese.
Moir: What can the ordinary person do to get this unity?
Susanka: When you’re in a major activity place in your home – maybe it’s the kitchen window over the sink – use it as an opportunity to place something in the landscape that’s a focal point.
Or, you can use similar materials, inside and out. Use the same tile in the entryway as you use in the kitchen.
Messervy: One simple thing is to think about colors in your house and echo them outside.
Moir: Why do you feel integrating the two is so important? Susanka: The more we feel like our house and garden express us as a singular whole, the more at home we feel. A lot of people have a beautiful garden and a beautiful house, but these seem like two separate things.
Moir: Given your “not so big” approach to design, how big is just right for a house?
Susanka: I usually say a house should be one-third smaller than you think it should be, but just as expensive. Put your dollars into things that make you feel comfortable.
