A member of the daisy family, Artemisia constitutes a large and diverse group of plants including mugwort, wormwood, and sagebrush. What they all have in common is a culture of hardiness, drought tolerance, a hunger for sunlight, and well-drained soil. What makes the plants special are their powerful essential oils and camphor-spice aroma, an adaptation to discourage animal foragers.  It is from these oils that we get Absinthe, vermouth, Polish vodka, tarragon, and the compound artemisinin which is used in treating malaria, intestinal parasites, repelling fleas and moths, and more recently has shown promise in treating cancers and leukemia.

Beyond the industrial uses, many species of Artemisia are used as ornamentals including Powis Castle, Silver Mound (resistant to deer, attractive to bees, butterflies, and birds), Silver Brocade (compact, does well as a container filler), Silver King (white sage, also used in flower arrangements), David's Choice (native to No. California beaches), arborescens (fast growing, dense, essential oil with skin care applications), and dracunculus (tarragon).

Powis Castle, seen above, has been called "the gardener's dream plant" and "insanely drought-tolerant once established" making it an excellent choice for dry gardens. It's light color, cloud-like shape, and lacey texture make it an excellent choice for creating contrast and interest. It reaches heights of three feet, mounds well, and is well-suited for layering.

Below, Artemisia arborescens (meaning woody or tree-like):  Native to the Mediterranean, this Artemisia is also hardy and drought-tolerant making it a great garden companion of the highest magnitude as well as a color and texture modulator. It's  particularly well-suited for modern designs.

Below, Artemisia Silver Mound: Its foliage is described as "aromatic... finely textured with silky pubescence." An interesting word pubescence, in botany it refers to the soft down or fine short hairs on leaves and stems.

Not all varieties of the plant are gray or silver in color, like the wan green of Powis Castle above and below. The plant is believed to have originated in the gardens of Powis Castle in Wales in 1972 as a hybrid of A. arboescens and A. absinthium. Once introduced into the gardening world its popularity soon took it by storm (it's also thought that a cutting was sneaked from the grounds and taken to the market by a cunning entrepreneur).

"If we, the architects of the West, wish to do great work we must dare to be simple, must have the courage to fling aside every device that distracts the eye from structural beauty, must break through convention and get down to fundamental truths."
Irving Gill

It may be the quintessential tale of Southern California architecture, what time and earthquakes don't destroy, ignorance often does. Such is the story of Irving Gill's Dodge House. Once considered "one of the most architecturally significant American houses of the 20th century." Completed in 1914, at a time when the Italianate, Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, and Eastlake/Stick styles were the rage. Styles that had emigrated from the East Coast which in turn was an attempt to create America into an image of a low budget Europe.

The Dodge House wanted to change all that, break with conventions and bring Southern California its own architectural legacy. To do that Gill went back to California's first colonial buildings, the missions: Unadorned, white, boxy, with Moorish details. (Not unlike the cubes of townhouses of Moorish Portugal, Olhão Terraces in Algrave.)

Gill was Bauhaus before there was Bauhaus (he died in 1936), one of the pioneers of Modernism. Gill had no formal architectural training and never attended college. His minimalist, boxy buildings—like the Dodge House above—proved to be highly influential to both his peers and the next generation of architects, many of whom were no slouches themselves: Schindler, Lloyd Wright, Neutra, Loos, Van Der Rohe. Critic and historian Henry-Russel Hitchcock, a contemporary of Gill's, said that Gill's buildings of the 1910s "approach rather closely the most advanced European houses of the next decade... The whole effect, in its clarity of form and simplicity of means, is certainly more premonitory of the next stage of modern architecture than any other American work of its period."

Other critics called his work "cubist." Tastes being what they are, would move on and leave Gill behind in his later years. After his death, his reputation faded quickly. A 1960 book, "Five California Architects" (still in print) did much to renew interest his work (and California architecture in general). Eventually, his reputation would grow to exceed even what it was in his lifetime.

The Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA), Gill's 5,000 square foot original building on the left and Fredrick Fisher's three-level, 15,000 square foot expansion:

The Timken House, demolished:

Raymond House (1918), still standing:

Sansevieria, more commonly known as Snake Plant AKA Mother-in-law's, Devil's, or Djinn's Tongue, is named for the blade-like shape of its leaves.

In his 18 years of DBA Knibb Design, Sean has built a deep portfolio of pools. What distinguishes Sean's work from mere pool building is the way in which he integrates their design into the garden and landscape; more than a hole with water, his pools are filled with poetry. The pool becomes an opportunity to bring grace and quiet to a space, a kind of visual yoga of discipline, energy, and peace.

Peruse Sean's portfolio and you'll see that diversity and eclecticism are key. He goes easily from the Modern to the pastoral, from East to West, from the sumptuous to the minimal. Sean has the experience and chops to take his work in whatever direction best serves the project and space at hand.

Above and below: The Bauhaus-like geometry of the pool deck features a series of long rectangles that merge with the softer edges of the garden. Above, the scene has the feeling of a giant concrete throw pillow with the garden providing the silken fringe. The design also integrates the language of a traditional Japanese garden—stone, water, long, clean lines, repetitions of rectangular forms, and layers to provide a balanced symmetry. Care was taken to configure a variety of views from different vantage points in the space.

As in all of Sean's work, there are some surprises too: Below, note the small punctuations of color, the heroic pots and other Mediterranean touches, the playfulness in the planting choices, and the juxtaposition of different types of stone, as exemplified in the fireplace. Even when working within traditions, Sean's style is anything but orthodox.

Below, a garden reminiscent of the French style with an update: A formal cabana and pergola with the opulence of continuous stone planes accented by a passionate earthy palette.

Below, the heritage look of an old Italian villa is enhanced with citrus, a limited palette, and the juxtaposition of both soft and bold textures to compliment the old world hardscape.

Below, clean modern lines meet a cozy garden-bordered hideaway and a cool-dip of paradise.

Last year we introduced our Luma wing chair in both indoor and outdoor versions. Both versions are upholstered in burlap with contrasting piping and exposed painted blue wood legs which are made of poplar* in the indoor version and teak✝ for the outdoor. (Burlap, a traditional industrial material, also gains character when left in the elements.)

And now for 2013, as a special edition to be featured in the Line Hotel's three bay suite, we remade the Luma in red mohair velvet with an unfinished poplar frame and legs. Mohair, a combination of wool and the long silky hair of the angora goat, is extremely luxurious to the touch and renowned for its luster, softness, and strength. Touch this chair and be immediately surprised by this mohair's rich, downy surface—not at all like the velvet you were expecting. Mohair also makes the color more vivid than is typical of other red velvets.

The result is a hue that is more of a passionate lipstick and less of a bloody red. Red velvet has a long been associated with royalty. Its the very image of aristocratic glamour and old world luxury and carries the legacy of everything from the Parisian opera house and old Hollywood to the Storyville brothel. It's that deep connection to both the high life and low pleasures that gives our Luma wing chair such rich decorating possibilities.

* Teak is a hardwood that is extremely durable, weathers well, and is well suited for outdoor applications (a traditional material used for boat decks). Teak's high oil content, high tensile strength, tight grain, and silica content make it highly resistant to warping, shrinkage, rot, fungi and mildew and requires very little maintenance.
✝ White poplar is an extremely fast growing wood (it can grow up to 16 feet tall and 3 inches in diameter in a single season) that occupies a part of the ecosystem where other trees won't grow, qualities that help make it highly sustainable. Like harder woods, poplar won't shrink, swell, or warp.

An article by Edinburgh University's Professor of Visual Cultures, Richard J. Williams, appeared on the Aeon Magazine website recently. It quickly provoked a rush of reactive cybermileage with its provocative thesis. The subject? Can Architecture Improve Our Sex Lives?

The author was disappointed by the lack of architectural attention paid to the subject and preposes: Since buildings are where sex happens, you might expect [architects would]... spend more time thinking about it.

The verdict? Well, some have tried. That good architecture can take something good and make it better seems obvious. Stealing away to some faraway exotic beach could beat knocking boots in the backyard sandbox but as long as the company is good, the locale may just be nitpicking, That aside, what does it take, pray tell, for a building to bring on the sexy?

According to Williams, a few things:
1) Open space—sex needs space. Sex is often inhibited by too much intimacy, he says. (Claustrophobia is an anaphrodisiac, apparently.)
2) A certain amount of natural disorderliness: Western standards tend to the efficient and civil, qualities that inhibit sex drive. What this means exactly the author doesn't say: Organic forms, rounded feminine lines, asymmetry, a mix of textures and colors seem to make up part of the argument.

In describing architects who do sexy well, Williams names a few, most notably Oscar Niemeyer. In his description, Williams speaks of how Niemeyer's work eschews right angles and routinely invokes the female body, a leitmotif that characterized much of Niemeyer's Brazilian work (which the author calls the eternal erotic paradise.) According to GQ, Neimeyer claimed women were his inspiration: "His office walls are decorated in kinky graffiti simple naked sketches that some would consider sexual harassment, but here in the sunny penthouse above Rio de Janeiro are beloved as pure inspiration." Neimeyer claimed to see women's bodies in everything, in the curve of a mountain, the sinuous lines of rivers. For him architecture was a matter of taking a single line of a woman and then imagining a building around her.

This curvy, sensual element is also an important component of Niemeyer's countryman, Roberto Burle Marx, another curvaceous practitioner who also used gardens to great effect (more on that in a moment).

According to those who claim to know, another architect who knows well the vernacular of sexy is Zaha Hadid. You could say that Hadid takes Neimeyer's curves and makes them Rubenesque on a Russ Meyer scale. Though, unlike Neimeyer, she's not reticent with her right angles. Donna Karan has praised Hadid's work for its lyricism and sensuality and Glamour Magazine has called her the Lady Gaga of architecture. Judging from her own words, Hadid gets the sexual role of architecture: “Architecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a space … On the one hand it’s about shelter, but it’s also about pleasure.”

So, when architects do attempt to create architecture that respects the erotic, the path they chose was always the same: Open, airy, well-lit, and with natural views, in other words, architecture that's more like a garden. The garden also invites us to join into a sensual connectivity with the environment through sights, sounds and aromas. For its sheer display of life, rejuvenation, and death, what could possibly be more, shall we say, inspiring?

Studies on communal living in the 60s and 70s showed they offered a lifestyle that was more immediate and present. As a result interactivity among it's members, hooking up in other words, reached higher levels than traditional living environments. The garden also teaches us that: Ephemeral flowers bloom and decay, pollinators come while they can because soon the winter will occupy their time with other demands, and the web of life that is necessary for it all to sustain.

Sean's work, whether indoors or outdoors, has always been conscious of the interaction of not only user and space, but how a space moves and flows and interacts with itself. Integrating the longer views with the more immediate space. In the work is a belief that exterior views, even when looking out from the inside, can enhance mood and ambience both in and out. No other indoor feature, be it coloring, texture, flooring, furnishings, or materials can have the impact of a living breathing garden. Even better when the garden crosses the boundaries, as seen in the view below.

Above and below, two views of an estate:

What can be sexier than dining al fresco. (Tip for best romantic results: Serve pasta, some red wine, and some chocolate (not too much of any), followed by a post-prandial walk—a menu recommended by scientists as the best aphrodisiac. It's true.)

This so-called Dream Plant, Artemisia, may be the quintessential Californian. And like Californians, many species are non-native (most are from Asia, probably China). While California does have its own native varieties—Artemisia californicus and the Beach Wormwood—they tend to be too scruffy to be popular as ornamentals. In fact, of the 200 - 400 species known of the genus, only a few are used as ornamentals.

A robust californicus below:

The Beach Wormwood:

Photo by Richard Schiell

Artemisias' ability to tolerate hot, dry, and sunny conditions make it particularly Southern Californiphiliac. It prefers well drained soil and full sun (can get "leggy" in partial shade). A good spreader, some species can disperse so prodigiously as to be considered aggressive. Some varieties will therefore require more loving discipline than others. 

Artemisia's palette contrasts well with other plants. Its wan color and lacey textures lends itself well to most garden compositions, lending depth and fullness. It can also pair strikingly well with flowers, especially white and blue varieties, and its cloud-like formation blends well with a spikey native like the Juncus patens below.

Artemisias come in a variety of colors from a silvery blueish to darker olive greens. While many species will bloom, the flowers don't amount to much. It's not Artemisia's flowers that we love but its beautiful and aromatic foliage. 

Great for accenting, layering, or providing a color backdrop:

Heuchera against Artemisia's silvery field:

See part one of The Dream Plant here.

It's a phrase that gets bandied about by both designers and those who describe what they do. On its face it seems meaningless—why wouldn't a space have a sense of place?—but to look at it more deeply, it represents a fundamental component of how design projects come together.

As a process, it's been said design is like Michaelangelo creating David from a block of marble. Before chisel can be laid to stone, first the stone must be created. For the purposes of an environmental project this means that creating the basics at the outset, this stone-making—concept, theme, style, historicity—is like a writer creating a first draft. This is where something begins out of nothing but pure imagination, as it were. Once the basics are established, the subsequent work—the plans, drawings, materials, etc.—can be chiseled from that stone. From there, the beautiful design can emerge.

How the stone gets chiseled into an environment or architecture, or even a piece of furniture, depends on a number of factors. For a garden that means achieving a balance between those things that don't change—climate, topography, history, surroundings, both human-made and natural—and those that do—style, theme, material, culture, etc. The best design comes from an interaction of the two, a relationship built like any other human interaction, a cooperation of mutual respect and understanding.

For this project on Dudley Court in Venice, that respect took the form of coastal references. This was demonstrated in the use of scallop shells, sand colored gravel, water in the form of a small plunge pool/spa, succulents, and a mix of coastal and Mediterranean style plants and grasses. The idealized lushness and density of the plantings also pointed toward an idyllic English garden with its layered, hedge-like planes and a lawn area which also allows serves the purpose of extending flat space for entertaining. A reference to early Los Angeles and it's residential architectural style of the time, Victorian, which the house (seen below right) alludes to.

The palette was muted in deference to the local natural environment. A number of California-like tones were used among the greens including blue gray, silver, white, and yellow-orange. A hint of California's agricultural legacy can be seen in the use of domesticated foodstuffs like artichoke (seen foreground, right) and wheat.

Below, views from the inside the home: At left, Moroccan-style seating set for a party across the lawn area.

Above right (bottom), the hand like objects are vintage glove driers with a backdrop of hand turned ceramics; below upper left, the plunge pool in black concrete. A white gate with an attached planter at bottom that opens onto a walk street.

We’d like to think that the garden is where it all began. Nature mentors us all and no one more so than the designer. (An unctuous writer once called designers the small god.) The DNA of nature is all over our human creations and we see its threads linking nature and fashion, art, landscape, furniture, architecture, and even graphic design if you get down to it. Imitating nature isn’t limited to the yearnings of humanity, nature Herself does it constantly, AKA biomimicry. Biomimicry is also the name we give to the method of utilizing nature’s wisdom and applying it to solve human problems—precisely what the designer does.

Above, the literal; below, the abstract––the Glove Dress (AKA the N4) from Sebastian Errazuriz: Chilean born, London raised artist and designer Errazuriz was a top emerging artist according to I.D. Magazine, had work auctioned off by Sotheby’s at age 28, selected for the Compasso d’Oro and Chilean Designer of the Year. His work has been described as having an obsession with sex and death as well as incorporating a mix of genres, trades, and disciplines. And yet, his work is also steadfastly contemporary. But even Errazuriz doesn’t get as raw as the completely plant-based costumery above. Below, under the glove dress, a newspaper one and below that pretensions of furry animals, crystals, and the meadow.

Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters

A girl sitting on a bench in a buttercup plantation in Israel.

Above, a girl sitting on a bench in a buttercup plantation in Israel. (Thanks to @pourmecoffee for the heads up.)

Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only thing that could spoil a day was people. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself. Ernest Hemingway

I must have flowers, always, and always. Claude Monet

Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.
Yoko Ono

A member of the daisy family, Artemisia constitutes a large and diverse group of plants including mugwort, wormwood, and sagebrush. What they all have in common is a culture of hardiness, drought tolerance, a hunger for sunlight, and well-drained soil. What makes the plants special are their powerful essential oils and camphor-spice aroma, an adaptation to discourage animal foragers.  It is from these oils that we get Absinthe, vermouth, Polish vodka, tarragon, and the compound artemisinin which is used in treating malaria, intestinal parasites, repelling fleas and moths, and more recently has shown promise in treating cancers and leukemia.

Beyond the industrial uses, many species of Artemisia are used as ornamentals including Powis Castle, Silver Mound (resistant to deer, attractive to bees, butterflies, and birds), Silver Brocade (compact, does well as a container filler), Silver King (white sage, also used in flower arrangements), David’s Choice (native to No. California beaches), arborescens (fast growing, dense, essential oil with skin care applications), and dracunculus (tarragon).

Powis Castle, seen above, has been called “the gardener’s dream plant” and “insanely drought-tolerant once established” making it an excellent choice for dry gardens. It’s light color, cloud-like shape, and lacey texture make it an excellent choice for creating contrast and interest. It reaches heights of three feet, mounds well, and is well-suited for layering.

Below, Artemisia arborescens (meaning woody or tree-like):  Native to the Mediterranean, this Artemisia is also hardy and drought-tolerant making it a great garden companion of the highest magnitude as well as a color and texture modulator. It’s  particularly well-suited for modern designs.

Below, Artemisia Silver Mound: Its foliage is described as “aromatic… finely textured with silky pubescence.” An interesting word pubescence, in botany it refers to the soft down or fine short hairs on leaves and stems.

Not all varieties of the plant are gray or silver in color, like the wan green of Powis Castle above and below. The plant is believed to have originated in the gardens of Powis Castle in Wales in 1972 as a hybrid of A. arboescens and A. absinthium. Once introduced into the gardening world its popularity soon took it by storm (it’s also thought that a cutting was sneaked from the grounds and taken to the market by a cunning entrepreneur).

A member of the daisy family, Artemisia constitutes a large and diverse group of plants including mugwort, wormwood, and sagebrush. What they all have in common is a culture of hardiness, drought tolerance, a hunger for sunlight, and well-drained soil. What makes the plants special are their powerful essential oils and camphor-spice aroma, an adaptation to discourage animal foragers.  It is from these oils that we get Absinthe, vermouth, Polish vodka, tarragon, and the compound artemisinin which is used in treating malaria, intestinal parasites, repelling fleas and moths, and more recently has shown promise in treating cancers and leukemia.

Beyond the industrial uses, many species of Artemisia are used as ornamentals including Powis Castle, Silver Mound (resistant to deer, attractive to bees, butterflies, and birds), Silver Brocade (compact, does well as a container filler), Silver King (white sage, also used in flower arrangements), David’s Choice (native to No. California beaches), arborescens (fast growing, dense, essential oil with skin care applications), and dracunculus (tarragon).

Powis Castle, seen above, has been called “the gardener’s dream plant” and “insanely drought-tolerant once established” making it an excellent choice for dry gardens. It’s light color, cloud-like shape, and lacey texture make it an excellent choice for creating contrast and interest. It reaches heights of three feet, mounds well, and is well-suited for layering.

Below, Artemisia arborescens (meaning woody or tree-like):  Native to the Mediterranean, this Artemisia is also hardy and drought-tolerant making it a great garden companion of the highest magnitude as well as a color and texture modulator. It’s  particularly well-suited for modern designs.

Below, Artemisia Silver Mound: Its foliage is described as “aromatic… finely textured with silky pubescence.” An interesting word pubescence, in botany it refers to the soft down or fine short hairs on leaves and stems.

Not all varieties of the plant are gray or silver in color, like the wan green of Powis Castle above and below. The plant is believed to have originated in the gardens of Powis Castle in Wales in 1972 as a hybrid of A. arboescens and A. absinthium. Once introduced into the gardening world its popularity soon took it by storm (it’s also thought that a cutting was sneaked from the grounds and taken to the market by a cunning entrepreneur).