The expansive elevated garden at Capitol Grand has been designed by one of Melbourne’s most celebrated and in-demand landscape gardeners, Jack Merlo.
Incredibly, Merlo started his eponymously named business while still studying horticulture at the University of Melbourne – and it wasn’t unknown for him to call upon classmates to help him complete jobs.
After winning a throng of awards at the Melbourne Flower and Garden Show in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Merlo elevated his standing even further when in 2005 and 2006 he took out prestigious awards at the Chelsea Flower Show in London and the Montreal International Flora, respectively.
Since, Jack Merlo Design has continued to forge a reputation for design excellence and creative ingenuity in landscape design.
Recently, LK Property went to his offices in Toorak Rd to talk to him about his designs for the elevated garden at Capitol Grand.
In Part I of this interview we ask him about his approach, the layout of the garden and his collaboration with architects Bates Smart…
How would you describe the overall approach you’ve taken to designing this elevated garden?
It’s a contemporary approach, it’s not a fussy formal garden with lots of clipped hedging. It’s more fluid and soft. It’s very lush and green. What we’ve tried to do is, keep the garden feeling expansive, which it is, but also create some semi-private intimate areas within the garden that will give you a sense of privacy and seclusion for different groups to be using the spaces.
I suppose the approach has been a more contemporary design and taking a controlled approach to the materials, palate and the list of species. It’s classic contemporary and a very high level of detail and highly polished, well-worked, well-resolved design.
What are the main spaces in the garden?
There is some non-trafficable, heavily planted and mounded areas. They’re fairly organic rolling garden areas with ground covers and low shrubs, some canopy trees where the soil depth allows.
Then we’ve got these more open lawn areas and these pavilions that lead off the edge of the more open space. They’ll be an oval form and have a metal fin fanning around the outer edge that acts like a louvre – this will give a level of privacy and respond to the architecture. The roofs of the pavilions will be treated with pebbled surfaces or also be planted, because obviously you’re viewing this from all angles.
Then there’s the common areas, where the floor finish to the pool area continues out as a paved service to the garden. We also have semi-private deck areas facing north, which will have sun beds.
How important was it that you collaborated with Bates Smart (Capitol Grand architects) when designing the garden?
It was important that I collaborated closely with Bates Smart throughout the process to ensure that there was a cohesive flow and connection from the architecture to the landscape. So taking reference to the fluid forms of the two towers was very important and we worked closely together to create the shape of these skylights and light wells. So I think the collaboration was very important.
Read Part 2 of our interview with Jack Merlo.
