Elemental Living: 10 Incredible Rock Garden Designs

Raw materials inherently represent nature and growth. Rock gardens emphasize perception, sequence and connection.

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Materials define spatial experience. Working to blend environments and merge outdoor and indoor space, designers utilize raw and untreated materials to echo site features or recall the surrounding context. This is readily seen with steel, timber or stone aggregates. Bringing together a diverse material palette produces different experiences and haptic connections. Raw materials inherently represent growth and nature. These organic elements can be formed into panels, modules or more easily constructible shapes that are then pieced together.

Moving away from more rigid material assemblies, we’re taking a closer look at buildings and projects designed around rock gardens. Designed to emphasize a particular view inside the garden or the stones themselves, these spaces are usually made with very few plantings. Instead, they favor minimalist furniture, open space and quiet contemplation. As increasingly popular methods of bringing the outdoors in, rock gardens are found throughout residential and commercial architecture. Today, these spaces go beyond decoration and symbolism to encompass modern ideas on perception, sequence and connection.

Zen Garden at Zero Quantity House by Ben Ryuki Miyagi Design, Yokohama, Japan

As a space for entertainment and exhibition added to an existing structure, this Zen Garden features floating white stucco boxes sunken into a rock garden. The boxes are geometrically connected and joined to the original house sited among white gravel.

Viewpoint House by 2.8 I NIKOLAS BRICEÑO arquitecto, Lima, Peru

Designed in a residential neighborhood on the eastern side of Lima, this house was sited on a steeply sloping hill with views out to the city. Formed as a modern and minimalist volume, the project includes a roof garden terrace made to recall the surrounding context.

Vastu House by Khosla Associates, Bengaluru, India

Designed around the plan of the Vastu Purusha Mandala, this private residence was organized and oriented in accordance with energy flows. Made with linear lines and cantilevered roof forms weaving around trees, the design features a rock garden and large expanses of glass to blur the boundaries between interior and exterior.

The house cast in liquid stone by SPASM Design Architects, Khopoli, India

Created on a rocky outcrop in Maharashtra, this project was designed around basalt rock to recall the local site and region. The house’s concrete was mixed with basalt, water and cement, while the building was conceived as a refuge from the surrounding climatic conditions.

Casa Rex by FGMF Arquitetos, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Created as a design office in Brazil, Casa REX combines space for meeting, reception and exhibiting the office’s projects. The façade featured piled stone gabions, while the interior was filled with the same stone to create an “inter-space” gallery amidst the building’s ruins.

Cedar Creek by Hocker Design Group, Trinidad, Texas, United States

Located above Cedar Creek Lake, this private residence includes multiple buildings and outdoor spaces weaved together below the tree line. Oriented to views between pine and oak trees, the house features a rock court adjacent to living quarters and common areas.

West Village Garden by XS SPACE, New York, N.Y., United States

Envisioned as a place that celebrates style and materiality, the West Village Garden was designed with clean lines and a simple, low-maintenance palette. Pea gravel and light gray limestone combine around a Cor-Ten steel planter bed and horizontal Ipe fencing.

Heavy Metalby Hufft, Joplin, Mo., United States

Inspired by a straight-forward, industrial aesthetic, Heavy Metal was formed with 200 custom perforated steel panels that response to different interior and exterior conditions. Exploring opacity, transparency and materiality, the project centers on a courtyard parti around multiple gravel and rock features.

Veranda on a Roof by Studio Course, Ghorpadi, Pune, India

Located on the roof of a 12-story duplex apartment building, this space was conceived as a ‘Veranda’ merging exterior and interior, house and street. As a place for books, food and plants, the area includes a terrace and reading nook connected by wooden details and a simple rock garden.

Waterside Buddhist Shrine by ARCHSTUDIO (China), Tangshan, China

Formed as a center for Buddhist mediation, thinking and contemplation, this shrine is sited in a forest by the riverside. Connecting buildings with nature, the design was made using flowing, continuous interior spaces around courtyards, rock gardens and concrete walls.

Author: Eric Baldwin

Based in New York City, Eric was trained in both architecture and communications. As Director of Communications at Sasaki, he has a background spanning media, academia, and practice. He's deeply committed to trying as many restaurants as possible in NYC.