Friend or Foe? | AI and the Garden Design profession
Mark Hardy explores the potential of artificial intelligence in the garden design industry
Friend or Foe? | AI and the Garden Design profession.
There's been a lot of discussion recently about the impact artificial intelligence might have on the garden design profession. Will AI eventually replace garden designers? Will clients simply upload a photograph of their garden, press a button and get a beautiful new design in seconds? Well, they can already do that, but the results can be unpredictable and a little…off…
I know plenty of garden designers are concerned about what AI might mean for the future of our profession, and I can understand why. But I don't share quite the same sense of doom. In fact, I'm rather excited about what it might allow us to do.
I suspect some of my fellow designers will disagree with me on this. Fair enough. It's a contentious subject and there are some very real concerns about the impact on our livelihoods and the value of creative work. But having spent much of my previous career watching technology transform the creative industries, I find myself looking at AI with more curiosity than fear.
We've been here before. Sort of.
Not so long ago, garden designers produced their drawings by hand. Beautifully drafted plans, carefully coloured perspectives and intricate planting illustrations were all part of the designer's craft. Then along came computer-aided design.
Software such as Vectorworks and SketchUp changed the way designers worked. Plans could be produced more efficiently, three-dimensional models helped clients understand proposed spaces, and changes that once required hours at a drawing board could be made in minutes.
Garden design didn't disappear as a profession. We adapted, and the tools available to us became considerably more sophisticated.
Other industries have experienced similar changes. Graphic designers moved from drawing boards and physical artwork to digital software. Fashion designers now use 3D modelling to develop garments before cutting fabric. Advances in imaging and robotics have changed healthcare, while technology has transformed everything from food production to how we research and book our holidays. Not all of these changes have been painless. Some traditional jobs and skills have disappeared, but new opportunities have emerged too. There is, of course, an important difference between CAD and AI. CAD largely gave trained professionals better tools to do their jobs. AI is putting some of those creative capabilities directly into the hands of people with little or no professional training. Anyone can now generate a relatively convincing image of a beautifully landscaped garden without understanding the first thing about garden design.
That's a much bigger shift, and I think our profession needs to take it seriously.
But a pretty picture isn't a garden design.
One of the things that fascinates me about AI is how quickly it can produce an attractive image. Upload a photo of a tired garden and ask for ‘a contemporary city retreat’, and within seconds you'll have something that looks relatively convincing.
But look a little closer.
Will that beautiful Olive tree survive in a damp, north-facing garden? Will the planting thrive in heavy clay soil? Where does the rainwater go? What happens when the garden slopes steeply towards the house? Can the proposed materials actually be sourced, and is the design achievable within a client's budget?
An experienced garden designer will understand the conditions of a site and how to work with them. We know about soil, drainage, levels, construction and planting, and have an instinctive understanding of how all these things come together to create a finished garden.
There's also the importance of getting to know our clients.
I spend a great deal of time listening to people before I begin designing anything. I want to understand how they live, what they enjoy, what frustrates them about their existing garden and how they imagine using it in the future. Sometimes the most important part of a design brief is something the client hasn't actually asked for.
It's this combination of technical knowledge, experience and understanding of people that allows a good designer to create a garden that feels right for both the house and those living in it.
Clients aren't buying a piece of art.
I think we, as garden designers, need to be much clearer about the value we offer.
Our clients aren't commissioning a beautiful drawing to hang on their wall. They're investing in a real-world garden, one they can spend time in and enjoy for years to come.
Of course, the garden needs to look stunning. But it also needs to function properly.
It should make the best use of the available space, connect naturally with the house and accommodate the practical demands of everyday life. The design needs to be achievable within the client's budget, and the planting needs to be appropriate for the conditions.
And, if we've done our job properly, the finished garden should improve the way our clients live at home.
As AI-generated imagery becomes more accessible, some potential clients will inevitably question why they should pay a designer when they can produce something attractive themselves in seconds. I think that's a perfectly reasonable question.
It also means we need to do a better job of explaining what goes into professional garden design. If we rely too heavily on beautiful images to demonstrate our value, AI could make that increasingly difficult.
There's an enormous amount of thought, knowledge and problem-solving involved in taking an idea from an initial conversation through to a garden that can actually be built.
And that's what our clients are paying for.
So where does AI fit in?
Personally, I can see plenty of opportunities.
AI could help designers explore ideas, experiment with planting combinations and communicate proposals to clients in ways that are currently time-consuming or expensive.
Visualisation is an obvious example. Showing how a proposed garden might look in different seasons, how planting could mature or how materials might work alongside an existing building could be incredibly useful.
There's also the less glamorous side of running a design practice. Research, administration and organising information all take time, and I'd be very happy to have some help with those tasks.
Of course, AI makes mistakes. Sometimes spectacular ones! It can invent information, suggest plants that are completely unsuitable or produce images containing things that would be impossible to construct in the real world. So I wouldn't dream of relying on it without cross checking the results.
Used sensibly, though, I think it has the potential to make us more efficient and give us more time to concentrate on the work that matters.
What about the next generation of designers?
I also wonder how AI will change the way garden design is taught and learnt.
When I studied at the Inchbald School of Design, I learned how to survey and analyse a site, understand spatial relationships, work with levels, develop planting schemes and communicate ideas through drawings and models. These are the foundations of garden design, and I don't see them becoming any less important.
If anything, I think technical knowledge and a proper understanding of design principles will become more valuable as AI-generated imagery becomes commonplace.
A pretty picture is easy to produce. Knowing whether the ideas behind it will actually work requires way more expertise. And try giving that fancy render to a landscaper and asking them to build from it! I’m not sure they will be overly impressed.
I'd like to see the next generation of designers become confident using AI, whilst being equally confident in questioning what it produces.
An opportunity to evolve.
Before retraining as a garden designer, I spent thirty years working in the media and entertainment industries. I saw first-hand how digital photography, desktop publishing, online media and streaming changed the way creative businesses operated.
There was often anxiety when new technology arrived, and sometimes that anxiety was justified. Jobs changed, businesses struggled and established ways of working disappeared. But I also saw how people adapted, developed new skills and found opportunities that hadn't existed before.
I suspect something similar will happen in garden design.
I'm certainly not suggesting we blindly embrace every new AI tool. There are legitimate questions about copyright, originality, accuracy and the environmental cost of the technology itself. And I appreciate that some designers feel their skills and livelihoods are under threat. I also don't believe everything we do needs to become faster. Good design takes time, and there's a lot to be said for sitting with an idea, drawing it out and thinking carefully about how it might work.
But I'm interested in what AI might add to our profession, and how we can use it to improve the service we offer our clients.
After all, we're designing gardens for people to live in. Real places that need to work, look beautiful, respond to their surroundings and hopefully make everyday life at home a little better.
And until AI can visit a garden on a wet Tuesday in November, stand in a puddle of waterlogged clay and work out why the drainage isn't functioning, I think garden designers still have an important job to do. AI might change the way we design gardens. I don't think it changes why people need garden designers in the first place.
