We have visited two amazing gardens in recent couple of days, Sitio Roberto Burle Marx and Botanical Garden. Although the two places are all full of tropical plants, they give people different feelings. The landscape in Sitio Roberto Burle Marx is denser, and the plants are planted on hills like small forests. Also the landscape design near Burle Marx‘s house contains sustainable concept (rainwater reuse system). Thus, generally speaking, Burle Marx’s design gives people a feeling of home and makes people feel peaceful. There are some places and things there that really impressed me, like the using of stones and plants together and Burle Marx’s variety of collections. Those are where some of my sketches are come from.
The Botanical Garden makes me feel it is a more formal design, especially the using of two rows of palm trees to define a road. Perhaps it is also because of palm tree is the symbol of royalty. The garden has more species diversity. I noticed the garden has some species from different parts of the world other than Brazil, like the Japanese garden and the plants in some green houses. Overall, it is different from the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx not only because it has a larger scale design, also because they have different design concepts. The place I chose for my sketch is a short road leading by two rows of palm trees, and at the end of the road is a statue standing on a center circle piece of land surrounding by trees. I saw it as the miniature of the main feature of the graden.
Ran, I really like your sketches in your post. I know you have tried hard in those sketches since we are roommates for this Rio tip. I enjoy the time we spend together as roommates especially at the botanical garden and Sitio Roberto Burle Marx. You have made a very good comparison between the botanical garden and Sitio Roberto Burle Marx. Like what you says botanical garden is designed in a larger scale which shows its beauty of landscape while the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx is designed denser. Botanical garden can show the royalty of a kingdom from its two tall rows of palm trees at the entrance of the garden while the Sitio Roberto can let people feel more like home by its denser distribution of plants. Since both botanical garden and Sitio Roberto contain lots of tropical plants, they are similar. It is so great to see your analysis between those two great places. You find the key difference between those two. Both botanical garden and Sitio Roberto Burle Marx have their own special features. Except plants, botanical garden also has animals, such as monkeys and birds. It is a great experience to go there to see all of those plants mix so well with each other!