Often it is said time is the fourth dimension. Nowhere is this more evident than in the landscape.

This means the materials we use to design our spaces alter over time: they grow in ways we didn’t expect, they grow at rates we don’t anticipate and they decline over time. The materials can fruit, flower and seed.

Changes over time can both astonish and disappoint us, not only do whole environments alter over a long period of time but each individual species within the matrix has their own annual rhythm. Take a look at the Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica) to see how the leaves alone transfigure throughout the year – from pointy buds early in the year, to fresh flushes of lush green leaves and inconspicuous flowers, to colourful hues in the Autumn, to dry and brittle leaves left on over Winter until the pointy buds of Spring force them off to begin another year’s cycle.

(*Timings vary and depend on location)

 

Time is the Fourth Dimension

 

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