Cambridgeshire - Private Garden
The design for this countryside home took the span of 5 years and it has been developed gradually. The property is built on old farmland and comprises L shaped main house and a separate cottage-guest house. The style of the houses is mid-century modern designed by the architect professor Ivor Richards. The whole plot spreads in 3267 square meters, a rougher woodland on the edges surrounded by neighboring properties and agricultural crops. The existing garden had a typical cottage feel with lawn areas divided by clipped hedging and large tall perennial flower beds.
First, the owner wanted to redesign the existing rear garden next to the dining room. The space was divided into two levels; one decked area with a small rectangular pond and a second raised level covered with concrete slabs with a circular pond being transformed as a bog planting bed.
The task was to open up and break the existing hard edge separation between the two levels and remove the slippery old deck. There was also the issue of road noise coming from the nearby motorway. To tackle that we decided to lower the level of the garden, erect stone walls around the perimeter with lush planting, reuse and reshape the existing ponds and create a water folly with rockery around to mask the road noise. The material's choice of buff Yorkstone, reclaimed mill flagging, and oak as a new vernacular shaped the design narrative. We wanted to achieve a complementary contrast of modern/traditional and rustic/refined. This approach became the main theme of the whole property redefining and reshaping the existing features of the garden. Much of the dividing mediums within the garden such as the hedging and most of the planting beds were removed, large open vistas opened, to create a sense of space and carefully craft new habitats with less maintenance and more functionality in mind.
First, the owner wanted to redesign the existing rear garden next to the dining room. The space was divided into two levels; one decked area with a small rectangular pond and a second raised level covered with concrete slabs with a circular pond being transformed as a bog planting bed.
The task was to open up and break the existing hard edge separation between the two levels and remove the slippery old deck. There was also the issue of road noise coming from the nearby motorway. To tackle that we decided to lower the level of the garden, erect stone walls around the perimeter with lush planting, reuse and reshape the existing ponds and create a water folly with rockery around to mask the road noise. The material's choice of buff Yorkstone, reclaimed mill flagging, and oak as a new vernacular shaped the design narrative. We wanted to achieve a complementary contrast of modern/traditional and rustic/refined. This approach became the main theme of the whole property redefining and reshaping the existing features of the garden. Much of the dividing mediums within the garden such as the hedging and most of the planting beds were removed, large open vistas opened, to create a sense of space and carefully craft new habitats with less maintenance and more functionality in mind.