While Corten is often associated with modern gardens abiding by rules of strict linearity and an emphasis on negative space, I was delighted to find panels of oxidized steel sprinkled throughout a woodland garden during a design consultation earlier this summer. The warm, earthen tones of the rusting panels leapt out of the shadows and contributed to a visceral feeling of movement throughout the garden. I took this as the starting point for the design of an outdoor room in a woodland garden.

A concave 8' x 9' oxidized steel panel acts as the back wall and abstract focal point "painting" for the room. An arcing, andesite stone wall, green roof arbor and steel edging all add to the feeling of an open, yet delineated space within the garden.

A Yankee doodles.

In the process of developing the design, I experimented with using concentric circles as a way to bridge from the right angles of the home/patio to the fluid, curvilinear lines throughout the garden.

The vertical expression of these concentric circles (the panel, the arbor and sloping andesite wall) are all critical in defining the space.

A completed concept. No, wait- the rocks are too much.

The home is in a neighborhood nestled against the Boise river that provides a micro-climate achingly close to zone 7, with trace amounts of honest-to-gosh humidity and an actual water table; perfect for the dry, woodland, under-story plants we installed.