Outdoor Room Design steps through the process of designing a tapestry of outdoor rooms meant to be inhabited, not just viewed from indoors. It’s a little-known fact that one of the best sustainability moves we can make is to entice people outdoors so they get conditioned to the local environment. When they return indoors, they just might be able to turn the A/C off and throw the windows open… and there’s no equipment so efficient as that which is off.

The book starts with general principles like south-facing outdoors, positive outdoor space, and the really important “hints from houses.” It then lays out a number of room types you might want to consider, such as the hearth garden, dinner garden, breakfast terrace, kitchen garden, couple’s garden, frontage garden, meditation garden, coffee cove, children’s maze, orchard run, motor court/sport court, and even the secret garden. Once the rooms have been laid into the landscape, the next step is to set the borders, then lay out any garden structures. Next comes the water, with a focus on useful water elements that are not solely ornamental. The passages between the rooms are next, then the finishes, fixtures, furnishings, and finally the plant material.

Here’s a typical page screen shot. Again, anyone who pledges any level of support to the Kickstarter gets this book as a reward if we reach the $18,000 Stretch Goal. So thanks in advance for spreading the word… much appreciated! Here’s the Kickstarter link.

Steve Mouzon