Shape Detail at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Lighting doesn't have to be purely functional. This ornate, wirework chandelier is incredibly beautiful, whether it's providing light or not. Candles can be sat in it for a warm, romantic evening light. It's hung low so its shape detail and detail can be fully appreciated.

THIS INFLUENCES design considerably. Few plots are symmetrical, but that really does not matter. An L-shape detail or a triangle can even offer more design potential than a rectangle. Perhaps the most difficult shape detail of all is a square, particularly when it is too small to subdivide as in many yards in front. A design for an awkward shape detail needs to be carefully thought out. A long thin area, for example, can be divided into contrasting sections with barriers across its width, but by leaving a narrow view running through from one end to the other you create an additional sight line. Furthermore, by placing an ornamental feature like a statue or seat at the far end, you gain the full benefit from the site's length while the screens minimize the disadvantages of its shape detail.

The shape detail of the geoid is defined by its departure from a "reference ellipsoid" which fits most closely to the shape detail of the earth; in this case, the average level of the land and sea is taken as the norm. Mountains are then higher and sea-floors lower than the surface of this ellipsoid. (An ellipsoid is the regular geometric shape detail obtained by revolving an ellipse round one of its axes.)