As a landscape architect, it’s your job to provide your clients with incredible outdoors spaces that not only look amazing but also fit with their specific lifestyle needs and requests. Often the best design isn’t one found in a magazine, rather it is something more customised that is created between you and the client. Sure, magazines are great for inspiration, but as any landscape architect knows, there is no such thing as a one-size fits all solution to exterior design.
One thing that landscape architects commonly run into is providing a design for clients that have kids. Suddenly that garden space isn’t just meant for the adults, rather it also needs to be child-friendly. Playgrounds are often the go-to answer, but before you let your client choose something off-the-rack, you may want to educate them on the benefits of bespoke playground equipment which can offer a more customised solution.
Clients Want Unique Pieces
When a homeowner hires on a landscape architect, there are usually a few reasons why they choose to go this route. Typically, they want a professional who is skilled and has the proper equipment, but they also look to a professional to provide unique ideas, inspiration, and design plans. If you show up with a design that looks like every other person’s back garden that they have come across, it’s not going to feel special enough. They will have a hard time justifying the cost of a landscape architect in the first place.
Unique pieces are what give the design personality, and clients not only look for these features but also expect them.
Off-the-Shelf Doesn’t Meet Specific Needs
Then there is the fact that off-the-shelf playgrounds simply can’t meet every homeowner’s specific needs. These are made to be basic designs that don’t offer much in terms of creativity. Perhaps your homeowner has a few inclusions that the playground needs to have, maybe the garden is an irregular shape therefore the playground must mimic that shape, or maybe they want a specific type of railing, a certain material, or a specific surface.
There are all kinds of variables that make for the ideal playground design that are based on the client’s budget, garden size and shape, the number of children they have, the ages of the children, and how long they want to be able to use the equipment for.
An Absolute Must for Those Who Need Accessible Play Spaces
If the client needs to create an accessible play space, then a custom design is the best and really the only way to go. Being able to customise the space means you can provide entertainment and fun features for all the kids, but do so in a way that keeps their safety as a top concern and priority.
Choose a Theme that Is Carried Throughout the Garden
Building a customised playground also gives the homeowner a chance to choose a theme, not just for the play area but the entire garden space in general. It can help to create flow and give it that organic feel in the garden that they are after.
Now, if the homeowner doesn’t really care about general flow, then they can always pick an independent and fun theme for the play area. Perhaps the kids like dinosaurs, pirates, superheroes, etc. It’s an opportunity to incorporate elements of the theme into the design and really pull it all together.
It’s Excellent Advertisement for Your Services
Let’s not forget that because a custom design tends to be a lot more eye-catching, it’s going to work as advertisement for your services. Each time that client has company over that make use of the garden space, they will notice the playground and there’s a good chance they will ask about it. It shows what you are capable of, and how personalised your designs are.
Not Just for Homeowner Clients
Keep in mind that these bespoke playgrounds aren’t just a great option for homeowners with children, it’s also ideal if you’ve been contracted by a school board, city, or town to create an exterior design that includes installing playground equipment. Because you can create custom playgrounds, you’ll be able to better meet your client’s needs where size, configuration, and budget is concerned.
For these large-scale projects, you can find information on playequip.com regarding custom playground equipment. The company is known in the industry as one of the top providers of bespoke playground construction and design and consultation.
A More Personalised Design
A bespoke playground design can act as the perfect solution for landscape architects that are trying to figure out how to best satisfy their client’s needs and wants, and provide them with a quality piece that doesn’t feel and look like a cookie-cutter playground. Unique designs and pieces are what will help set you apart from other architects and help your business to be successful.