Due to an unhappy
event, I lost some furniture last fall. Fortunately, a lot of it was ugly
so no big deal. Not knowing what to do, I Googled "Design Chicks that like hanging Mike Miller, Josh Smith and Arthur Weaver golf paintings," but that yielded a surprisingly small sample of decorators from which to choose. The one I ended up going with to piece things back together recently saw a Huka Lodge brochure on my living room desk. Thumbing through it, she was captivated by one photo in particular and remarked something to the effect that, "Isn't it remarkable how peaceful and understated this room looks to the eye?" At the time, I was more concerned with how my scotch had dropped to an ominously low level but...then I started thinking about that comment and how it applied to golf course architecture.
On her return, I asked Decorator Woman to articulate what she meant and to be specific. Here are the bullet points as to why the room worked to the her trained eye:
"Central focus of the picture/room:
the window. While large in scale, the size of the panes lends proportion to the details of the room
Contrasts:
straight lines, polygons, angles
deliberate yet not contrived
therefore they compliment and don't compete
Harmony:
overall blending (nothing screams "I need attention")
colors are not distracting and harmonize with nature (stone, cream , yellow, white, pebble)
true retreat ambiance
Descriptions:
complete (nothing else is necessary)
unobtrusive
inconspicuous
unimposing
Floor and ceiling emulate one another (gentle triangle on ceiling and prism angles on floor tie together).
Eye is drawn subtly around room and is never over-stimulated or bedazzled."
So that was her description (if I can figure out how to use a scanner, I'll post the photo). I told her how I was thinking of this in a golf design context, prompting her to throw out, " Ran, you need to read up on German architect Ludwig Meis Van Der Rohe. He embraced a "no-nonsense" heritage in his designs. Similar to this photo, his clean simple lines are nonetheless sophisticated."
Based on that, I called the infamous Robert Walker, a licensed architect, who told me that 'With Mies, you don't realize the luxury of his work and materials until you are actually inside his built environment. A limited palette can be very good.'
That last comment really resonated with me and all this leads me - finally
- to my question: What golf courses (as Laura Linney is to acting) offer the same kind of understated appeal?
Three spring to mind: Rustic Canyon, Wild Horse and, of course, Royal Ashdown Forest. All three are chock full of character yet in an apparently effortless manner. These courses were economical to build (staying at the Huka not so much) in part because nothing was overdone and they enjoy a timeless element that doesn't require constant fiddling (as opposed to courses with lots of eye candy that are a maintenance budget disaster in the making). When I told Robert my thoughts, he agreed that "Ashdown is a prime example of understatement and that part of that understatement is achieved by exclusion.' Again, another great line and it reminds me how intertwined the various forms of design are.
Nonetheless, back to the question: What courses offer understated appeal? And shouldn't we herald them as being the best road map going forward?
Cheers,