Bernard Trainor is the founding principal and design director of Ground Studio, a team of artists and designers working together to envision and craft contextual California landscapes, thoughtfully balancing the character of the land, the identity of the architecture, and the lifestyles of people who live there. Designing in a range of scales from compact urban gardens to expansive rural sites, our designs inspire a deep connection with the land.
Drawing on thirty-five years of passionate commitment to the study and practice of landscape design Trainor has completed four academic programs, practiced professionally in three countries, and continues to lecture extensively on the subject of Landscape Design throughout the world.
Ground Studio has two monographs that are published by Princeton Architectural Press : Landprints 2013 and Bernard Trainor: Ground Studio Landscapes 2019
Landscape Architecture is a wonderful and extremely challenging design discipline, it requires persistence and resilience, not only from the plants and materials we choose, but also from us, the designers - Time, growth, and an ongoing dialogue between people and land is where we have learned how to create landscapes that end up on these glossy pages.
BERNARD TRAINOR / GROUND STUDIO LANDSCAPES
Ground Studio is proud to announce the launch of our new monograph Bernard Trainor / Ground Studio Landscapes. (2019)
Ground Studio’s newest book celebrates the wild and elemental landscapes of California, from the craggy coasts of Big Sur to the fertile hills of Sonoma wine country. Their award-winning work combines an awareness of regional context with materials, collaboration, and deep connection to the land. Beautifully photographed and documented with full-color plans, the projects in this survey of their recent work include a range of scale, from compact urban gardens to expansive rural sites. Ground Studio’s regional, sustainable approach inspires wonder and respect for nature as it aims to preserve and restore it.
LANDPRINTS
We are pleased to share news that Princeton Architectural Press has published a monograph featuring our landscapes. Landprints (2013) showcases ten of the most ambitious and inspiring landscapes through gorgeous photography and a critical analysis of the firm and these individual projects by author Susan Heeger.
“If you’ve hiked the wilderness of California, following trails through the state’s Coast Range or climbing rocky bluffs above the beach, you’ve seen the enormity of its reach, the force of the heaving, twisting land, the fuzzy meadows and sharp ridges; you’ve heard the ocean’s crashing tides and the land’s sleepy, sun-drunk silence. In these places, the light can be hard and pitiless, and the heat crippling. But when the Pacific fog seeps inland from the ocean, the views become soft, and the cold is stunning. It’s not always a gentle world, but it’s exhilarating and elemental.
This elemental charge sparks the landscapes of Bernard Trainor, an Australian-born designer who has made it his life’s work to honor California’s spirit in gardens across the state. Neither a naturalist nor an architect, he uses the tools of both professions to create places that are at home on hilltops and craggy seasides, but hospitable to the people living there too. He’s an observer of the land, not only of what exists now but what has been and might have been—rolling grasslands shot with wildflowers in the spring; or sprawling acres around tile-roofed ranchos, where cattle once grazed.”
