Homes Integrated Into the Landscape

2 minutes

Architecture and the environment should relate and influence each other.

Last update: 23 May, 2020

Homes integrated into the landscape aren’t easy to do. This is a recurring theme in both architecture and interior design. For decades, it’s been a constraint when it comes to design.

Integrating a home into its landscape adds a new level to interior design and the territorial scale is very important.

This means that the project’s success or failure can have a big impact on the landscape. It can create problems for the environment, or resolve other issues with the landscape. It’s important to understand the relationship between humans and the landscape. You can use different strategies to understand and analyze how they can work together.

Create new concepts considering your surroundings as an extension of the actual house. It’s possible to use the outside like you’d use the inside of your home. Here are some ideas for homes integrated into the landscape and surrounding nature. Large windows are a good choice because they’ll let natural light in and offer a view of the landscape.

Homes integrated into the landscape by blending spaces

Create this by using continuous paving, going from the front of the house to the back. This blending method is better achieved in dining rooms and living rooms.

The main idea is that both areas, outdoors and indoors, blend at one point. The interior will be an extension of the outside as if they were the same space.

Interior decoration blends the outdoors and the indoors. These ideas are better used in homes near woodland or natural places.

Don’t use dividing elements

Dining rooms, kitchens, or living rooms can lead to a garden or woodland.

Walls shouldn’t limit the space. On the contrary, they can flow outdoors. Physical barriers can be torn down, and the landscape can be inhabited.

The landscape as a hanging picture

Many homes have pictures of landscapes on their walls. You can follow this concept and make it real by framing the landscape that surrounds your home.

To get this result, locate a window in the right direction and you’ll have a changing picture of nature. This window to the outside world will help you see the landscape in front of you.

Limited spaces

If you have the luck to live near a lake or a forest, this is a perfect idea for you. The living room’s walls disappear and give way to the landscape.

A Nate Berkus living room in a city apartment.

Using urban spaces to integrate into the landscape

When you live in a house or apartment in the city, you may lucky to live near a square. This is a great location because you can open your doors or windows to see what’s outside.

The city is the backdrop of your daily life. Your home space becomes the feature of a great urban play. Don’t compete with the landscape, create a dialogue with your surroundings.

Homes integrated into the landscape respect their surroundings. That’s the secret!