6 The built support that natural gardens need

I have found that people are nearly always short-sighted and want to economize on this 20%. When the going gets tough, and money becomes a problem, the red pencil comes out, and people say, let’s do this later. We must have doorknobs, shelves, brass fittings, a second bathroom — we will spend the money for the garden later.
I always resist it when my clients say this to me. You have to resist it, over the wishes of the client even, because our responsibility is for the whole not for the building alone, which is a fragment of the whole. The exterior structure is as vital a part of the structure of the whole, as the building. It happens to be a little cheaper than the building cost, 20% v. 80%. But you can not forget it, or reduce it, without severely damaging the whole. This exterior structure is what brings life to the world. If this 20% is robbed from the budget, the thing will die. It is much easier to put extra bathrooms, expensive floor materials, brass fittings and so on, at a later stage. Build the building for 80%, the garden for 20%, and then the living world will start to breathe. Otherwise it will never work.

#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/7 The Character of Gardens#