Thoughtful hardscape design can turn the concrete jungle into comfortable human habitat

architecture - engineering - construction

Thoughtful hardscape design can turn the concrete jungle into comfortable human habitat

July 21, 2021

Cities contain many hardscape elements: concrete, steel, iron, stone, brick, and glass.

What is hardscape?

Hardscape is the term for hard landscaping materials. Concrete, asphalt, stone, glass, brick, metal, and gravel are all hardscape. In general use, hardscape means materials placed by human design. Hardscape contrasts with soft materials like vegetation and soil, which are known as “softscape”. Together, hardscape and softscape make up the landscape.

Examples of hardscape include:

walkways
roadways
pools
lined water features
patios
retaining walls
gravel drainage areas

Hardscaping at home—making yards into oases

Traditionally, the term “hardscape” is most used by landscape architects and residential contractors who are adding pavers, retaining walls, decks, and driveways to the grounds of a building. Greenspace is often the prizewinning aspect of these designs: the flower garden, the placement of trees, giving the space its shape.

Yet hardscape provides both structural support and a complementing frame. It may sometimes be the less-noted aspect of the landscape architect’s work, but the type and placement of hardscape is vital for managing water, erosion, light, space, and safety.

Materials can be chosen to fade into the background or to provide visual interest. Smooth granite, cast iron trench drains, wrought gates, decorative pavers, simple brickwork, or mosaic tiled stones: small design choices can lead to very different aesthetics, even when the garden elements stay the same.

Urban hardscape—building the concrete jungle

In cities, concrete, tempered glass, and steel dominate the street. These have been the materials of the urban environment since the Industrial Revolution. The mechanical properties and structural stability of concrete and rebar make modern cities possible. Skyscrapers, utilities, and roads rely on their strength. Yet the concrete jungle has a reputation of being a sometimes hostile place to live and families often move to the suburbs for a slice of yard.

In our current age, challenged by population and climate, urban planners and architects have begun to re-evaluate hardscape design. What makes excellent human habitat? Social space, beauty, plants, and amenities. Can cities use the structure and function of hardscape while offering plentiful green spaces, a canopy of trees, and the rustling of wildlife? What if the approach to hardscape on downtown streets were more like traditional hardscaping in suburban backyards?

Hardscape vs. site furniture—social spaces and placemaking

Occasionally people include items like gazebos, benches, and planters into their definition of supplied hardscape. Others consider this site furniture. The distinction is slippery because a lot of site furniture in public space is bolted or embedded into the concrete, growing out of it as a permanent feature.

However, hardscape is generally functional infrastructure than manages the flow of people, things, information, or water. Site furniture is an attractive feature in a single spot.

French speakers know buildings as immeubles and furniture as meubles—unmovables and movables, respectively. Hardscape is the unmoving frame. Site furniture may be bolted, but it is easily moved, installed as an amenity for those in an area.

Site furniture, like hardscape, is an important element of outdoor design that should not be overlooked. Like comfy outdoor furniture in the backyard, a city’s site furniture promotes a social landscape.