PROJECT: Dry Garden
LOCATION: Roses, Costa Brava
YEAR: 2024 - 2025
DESCRIPTION:
Built into the steep rock of a hillside in the Bahía de Roses, this Mediterranean dry garden explores the intersection between landscape architecture, daily life, and site-specific adaptation. The design responds to a complex terrain—dramatic slopes, exposed rock, and shifting microclimates—by creating a sequence of terraces, paths, and planted areas that support both ecological resilience and human use.
Guided by xeriscape and regenerative landscape principles, the planting was designed to thrive without irrigation while offering texture, seasonal bloom, and biodiversity. Over 600 plants were introduced—many planted small to favour root adaptation and growth in situ. The palette combines drought-tolerant Mediterranean species, culinary herbs near the kitchen, fruit trees, erosion-controlling groundcovers, and shade-tolerant species nestled into rocky pockets.
The layout balances function and atmosphere: recycled wood stairs, gravel paths, and handcrafted local terracotta pots guide movement and define resting areas. New terraces were created to extend views, offer shelter from the wind, and create a range of microhabitats. Existing vegetation, including wild olive shrubs and cork oaks, was preserved and integrated, maintaining ecological continuity.
The lighting design responds to the garden’s nocturnal use—highlighting key paths, oak trunks, or light-textured foliage that together suggest calm, intimate spaces after dark. The full scope of work included masterplanning, planting design, construction detailing, lighting layout, plant supply, and softscape implementation.
We understand gardens as spaces that evolve through care and coexistence. Designed with the surrounding landscape in mind, this garden grows as part of a larger ecological and human system—rooted in place, attentive to change.