Mimimalism

[Gary Daughters]

What is minimalism?  Serious question.

I think I've been tossing around that term without knowing all it entails.

It must be more than not moving much dirt.

What is good minimalism?  What is bad minimalism?

Someone please help me out.

Thanks in advance.

Gary

[Jason Topp]

Gary - others will be more knowledgeable than me, but my view is that minimalism is a philosophy that, given a good site, an architect cannot artificially create ground contours that are as interesting as those that exist in nature.  Accordingly, a golf course should be constructed using the existing ground contour to the extent possible.

In other words - it really is simply moving as little dirt as possible and a belief that doing so results in a better course.

[Gary Daughters]

Jason.. thanks.

What if an architect has a dull piece of property.. is there a minimalist "look" that can be created?  "Look" being the visual manifestation of how the course would play.

If GCA is art, and art means "creating" something, is there a reason that minimalism cannot be created?

[Jerry Lemons]

I consider myself a minimalist designer... too a degree. More than some who "rape and shape" land.

I prefer to move as little dirt as possible and route the course as the land dicatates. Sometimes it is absolutly necassary to "Create" a hole and the trick in my opion is not get too crazy with contours that are not natural with the site.

Some sites are better for minimize dirt moving. Some are not. As an example in Salem Ky Deer Lakes, we moved less than 20k cu yrds of dirt.
In Xiaoshan China we will move 1.5 million cy to "create" a minimalist looking course.

[cary lichtenstein]

enter minimialism in the search feature, you will be able to read more threads and posts than you can absorb in one 3 hour period

[Jason Topp]

Gary - here is a link to Tom Doak's description of minamilism from his website

http://www.doakgolf.com/essays.asp?e=minman