ANDREA COCHRAN

... is a landscape architect working in Northern California. At first glance she appears as a minimalist but her strong artistic impulses are soon obvious. (Think of the abstract paintings of Roberto Burle Marx, the sculpted volumes of Luis Barragan, the carved planes of Le Notre). She shares Burle Marx’s painterly approach, giving great attention to colour, texture and form. Likewise, she understands the capacity for plants to ‘enchant us, as no other material can’.

Her finely crafted gardens suggest order and rationality but this is balanced with plantings which evoke life giving qualities and the ‘nourishing capacity of the biosphere’.

Critic Mary Myers writes of Andrea’s landscapes as, ‘..complex, layered, and rich with nuance. Geometry, juxtaposition, pattern, edge, flow and materiality are fused into lucid harmony. (there)... is an amplification of experience, in which one senses the designer’s capacity to respond to nature through a combination of concentrated intellect and imagination... (they are)..unique and beautiful’.

Andrea will illustrate how her designed landscapes have strong visual and spatial connections to the larger landscape, and how she cultivates connections to ‘place’ by using drought-tolerant meadows, Mediterranean plants, permeable paving, recycled materials, water saving technologies, green roofs and native trees.

Andrea comes very highly recommended by Thomas Woltz, a thought-provoking speaker at our 2009 Conference.