Defne Tuncay
Founder, landscape architect
Favourite plantOlea europaea
Works on Mediterranean gardens and low-water palettes. Every plan starts with a walk.
Since 2011 · Kandilli
We design by walking
Solvitur ambulandoA landscape architecture studio with its own garden crew. Fourteen of us; three at the desk, the rest in the soil.
It started in a nursery
In 2011 we put a desk next to a small nursery in Kandilli. Clients wanted to hold the plants before seeing the plan, so we moved the studio into the nursery.
Today we are fourteen and have built more than 180 gardens; we still care for most of them. The real test of a garden is not handover day but the fifth summer.
Our rule is simple: choose the local plant, measure the water, don’t touch the old tree.
Three rules
- Flora anatolica
Choose native
Local plants need less water and fewer sprays, and bring bees and birds.
- Aqua mensura
Measure water
Each plant group its own zone; just enough water, by sensor and drip.
- Arbor sacra
Don’t touch the tree
The old tree is the most valuable part of a site; we draw around it.
Hands in the soil
Landscape architects and gardeners in one team; each with a favourite plant.
Murat Ilgaz
Site lead, gardener
Favourite plantHydrangea quercifolia
25 years in the soil; leads the crews on site.
Ece Saraç
Landscape architect, irrigation
Favourite plantStipa tenuissima
Irrigation zones and roof gardens; loads and water on her desk.
From garden owners
Not a single olive was cut. In our second summer the garden barely needed water and the bees found the lavender.
Everyone is outside at lunch now. The rain gardens worked from the first downpour.
Four years of care now. A photo note after every visit; I follow the garden’s year through them.
Hic et nunc
Let’s walk your garden together
On a site visit we measure, look at soil and sun and talk through first ideas on the spot. Free within Istanbul.