About Helen Frances
MA, MBA, Dip. LD, MLA
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I am a landscape designer based in Northland, New Zealand. I work on projects in Auckland and Northland. I have been a passionate gardener for over 20 years.
Originally I trained as a social worker, and I subsequently spent many years as both a social work practitioner and a senior manager of health services. But I as learnt more and more about gardening, created several different gardens for myself, studied art and spent a great deal of time biking and tramping throughout New Zealand, I became more and more interested in landscape and design. My subsequent design practice is inspired by the superb natural beauty of our country and the subtle variety of our native plants. I find my background in social work and management contributes to my ability to relate to my clients and to contractors, and to manage the process to realise a design. I have a Diploma in Landscape Design and a Masters of Landscape Architecture, specialising in heritage and landscape, from Unitec in Auckland. I design from a mix of artistic sensibility, intellectual analysis and pragmatism – I aim for beauty and drama whilst taking into consideration the budget, the existing site conditions, the interaction between the owner or users and the site, and the life of the garden in the future. Every site and every client is unique, and my greatest satisfaction is to engage with both to create unique design solutions that sit well in the site and meet the client’s needs. |
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