Landscape Architecture
Conveying a spirit of place inspires our every landscape architecture and urban planning project, from small parks and residences up to campuses, downtowns, waterfronts and entire regions. Our team dives deep to ensure the location’s history and environment are understood and honoured. We are also advocates for its people, both past and present. We ensure that the voices of our first nations are heard and represented. We also work to ensure everyone feels respected and welcome by making accessibility central to every design consideration.
Landscape architecture is concerned with outdoor spaces like parks, gardens, neighborhoods, campuses, and public spaces. Landscape architects design these spaces to be efficient, engaging, and harmonious with the environment. They decide the locations for buildings, walkways, greenery, and other hardscape elements accordingly. Landscape architects also choose the materials for the walkways and the types of trees and shrubs for the green areas, and so they need to have a background in the science of urban horticulture. They should be aware of the suitable materials and plants for different climates and uses.
Master planning is about making the connection between buildings, social settings, the and their surrounding natural and built environment. A master plan includes analysis, recommendations, and proposals for a site’s population, economy, housing, transportation, community facilities, and land use. It is based on public input, surveys, planning initiatives, existing development, physical characteristics, and social and economic conditions.
Coastal living
Fathom was hired to master plan an ocean-front property that has been in the MacLeod family for decades. It was critical to design units that capitalized on ocean views and created a variety of unit types that appealed to giving them access and lead people from all walks of life to this beautiful part of our province.
Our primary goal was to achieve the desired development density while maintaining the natural character of the site. We approached the challenge by looking for a simple solution that would maximize the ocean and golf course views while maintaining the privacy of the individual units. Our master plan was developed simultaneously with unit types to ensure that the design worked at all scales, and maintained our core principle of respecting the property.
Having planning, architecture, landscape architecture, and civil engineering all working together with the client allowed us to create an effective master plan that addressed all of the design constraints and opportunities the site presented.
Status
Planning 2015–2017
Our Role
Planning, architecture, landscape
Client
MacLeod Family
Location
Inverness County, Nova Scotia