Zebragarden
This double garden measuring 168 m2 has been created behind two houses in a former squat in Amsterdam. It was designed in 2000. The residents wanted to create more private areas within the original large communal garden without completely dividing the garden in two. H+N+S resolved these conflicting objectives in an ingenious way by surrounding the garden with a wall and introducing two high walls of stacked gabions in a pond. These mark out private areas next to the living rooms of each house.
The size of the gardens is emphasized by the long views from both gardens into the neighboring area. The outer walls and dividing walls are connected in two places by a “pergola” of wire netting. Climbing plants planted against the wall can grow along these and reach into both gardens. The water and walls frame the gardens, which can be detailed independently the residents, like separate sections of a larger garden.
For the present residents they have been designed as two different but related gardens. One garden has been given a shaded terrace, a few small solitary trees and clumps of perennials in gravelled areas. Gravel is also used in the other garden, but here in combination with a mixed border and a terrace formed by a mosaic of black and white stones in a zebra pattern.
