8 Positive space in gardens

If we ask how to build these structures, how to arrange them, where to place them, my answer is simple. Always, you are trying to make positive space.
To treat the gardens as positive — more positive, even, than the buildings themselves — that is the first step. Each part must be composed of positive centers. And to achieve that, each of these centers which is achieved, must itself be made of positive centers, smaller centers. It is these second-level centers that are created by the structures which we build.
So we place buildings, to form positive space in the garden and outdoor areas. […] Then we build structures in these outdoor areas, to differentiate them further, into smaller living centers, animated by the structures — steps, walls, parapets, railings, seats, embankments, bridges, slopes… that we build in them. And then we allow natural life to rip loose, the plants, the grass, the trees, the bushes — and let these form still further centers, which then animate the positive space even further. That will happen almost of its own accord, if the initial positive space has been correctly made. This is the form the living process takes, in making a garden.

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