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This is a follow-up of a discussion that has taken place on a couple of forums in the past. A book that I have not referred to in my book to be found in cargocollective.com/selfbuildhome is Bernard Rudofsky's 'Behind the picture window' an excellent little book from 1955 by a writer, teacher and architect. (Sadly £50+ on ABEbooks.co.uk) It is written from an American perspective, though the sentiments seem to apply equally to the UK. Indeed when I worked for a speculative house-builder, open plan front gardens were the order or the day, insisted on by my bosses, the planners and probably the sales department as well. I did manage to break the mould by drawing beech hedges along and between the house fronts which were duly ordered up and planted...the planners assumed it was an enlightened builder and my bosses assumed it was a planning condition...haha 1-0 to Caliwag. So in the above book, Bernard was completely anti silly lawns..."in its present state, the front lawn does not invite play or rest. It is not a place where one might want to read a book. There is no question that it belongs to the street rather than to the house" Depending on the location of your front door and entrance hall, orientation and indeed the house layout, use and planting of a front garden could be similar to a side or rear garden. Mr R suggests "Even the average front lawn has enough room for a sunny place which, on bright mornings, may serve as a breakfast nook: a shaded corner for discovering the therapeutic value of a siesta: a well screened patch of grass for sunbathing: perhaps a sand pile for the youngest or even a paddling pool. And there may be still space left for flower beds and a herb garden. An inexhaustible repertoire of walls, hedges, fences, pergolas and trellises, tents and sun-sails may help us to feel more at home under the sky. The habitable garden could thus become additional living space and, in a sense, a nobler version of the house" All very interesting...a nice check list to set one thinking, and very 3D. As an architect, Mr R did 'defy the local authorities by-laws by building walls and trellises and unfortunately he does not outline the outcome. A fascinating alternative to creating effectively back garden to the front, is to follow the modern advice/trend of, what has been dubbed "a new perennial movement" using bold drifts of herbaceous plants and grasses as outlined by Piet Oudolf in one of his many books 'Planting, A New Perspective' 2013 about £20 on ABE...it is a new way of low maintenance planting with fascinating seasonal planting schemes...defo anti lawn Happy Designing Folks