Acre Landscape Architecture

Last year’s $7 million sale of a property in Bayview Crescent, Black Rock, highlighted the value of great landscape architecture. The vendors made a significant investment in creating an aspirational outdoor space that set the scene for this record off-market sale by Marshall White.

With an indicative selling range well in excess of Black Rock’s median house price $2,035,000, agent Kate Strickland drew on the Marshall White brand’s extensive client network across Melbourne’s premium areas to identify potential buyers for Bayview Crescent. “This was an unbelievable result for our clients, but also for Black Rock as a suburb,” said Kate.

For those who want to create similar stand-out outdoor spaces, one of Melbourne’s finest Landscape Architects are Acre Studio, known for their clean details combined with considered planting. The firm gained recognition and a Gold Award for its stunning transformation of a beach property in Blairgowrie where hard architectural lines were created and softened by vibrant and eye-catching native plant palettes.

We asked Director Brett Robinson what are some of his favourite textural combinations.

“At Acre, we enjoy adding texture into our hard surfaces so the use of handmade bricks and spilt face stone like Endicott from Eco Outdoor can create wonderful results. It adds so much character and warmth to our projects plus these materials are timeless so they don’t date,” said Brett.

“As for pairing, our architectural details and hard surfaces always do well paired with soft and emotive plant combinations. We like to call this stylised wildness and we often paint with plants using limited species in a way that the tones complement each other visually,” he said.

Acre employs a holistic approach to design – collaborating with interior designers, architects and clients to achieve the best outcome. Brett and his team work in sync with all parties on a project from day one to create outdoor spaces that enhance each residence.

“This means getting engaged very early on in a project to advise on landscape connections and architectural opportunities which will lift the project. We work very similar to an architect, it’s all about creating exciting schematic designs and then detailing and guiding the construction to see it all come to life,” said Brett.

“We also have a very different way of looking at a project, we often see potential that has been overlooked by other professions and have a different focus,” he said.

As residential landscape architecture becomes increasingly important, so is the need to gain council approvals for work. Councils are placing increasing focus on the surrounds of a home or building so landscape architects need to be engaged early with the architects to consider and demonstrate project outcomes.

“As soon as you are dealing with Councils, whether this be for a heritage overlay, report and content for building on boundaries, planning overlays or subdividing, Councils ask for landscape plans designed by a professional to accompany the submission,” said Brett.

“Moving forward the importance of landscape will only get stronger which is good news because evidence shows that we are happier and healthier when connected and surrounded by nature” he said.

For more information, visit: www.acre.com.au