Stepney
A garden of two halves.
This east facing garden was to create a modern space to enjoy the morning sun with a coffee by the house extension with a larger, more luscious, and enclosed space to transition to for relaxing in the afternoon sun or for entertaining. Important to our client’s brief was to also introduce identifiable elements in reference our client’s Chinese heritage in planting, form, and palette.
A garden of textures.
Our client wished for a space that was modern and high quality in its finishes whilst avoiding a bland palette and introduced a sense of exploration. We retained and repurposed existing features like the rail sleepers from the existing raised beds, turning them into a raised planted walkway between the spaces which softened the ground plane.
We introduced rich layered planting of different foliage’s over varied rendered levels to create an almost a tapestry like feel throughout the garden. A water feature was introduced as well as bamboo screening for its privacy as well as its theatrical rustling and clanking properties in the wind.
We extended the interior terrazzo floor finish into the garden space along with the formed concreted kitchen worktop, extending the worktop line into outdoor storage before transitioning to the formed seating area and replicating this in the outdoor kitchen.
A garden for socialising.
Our client wished for a morning coffee spot to capitalise on the morning sun aspect as well as space for larger garden parties. We reoriented the garden from its existing lateral nature and moved a tree to the rear of the garden to create two overlapping L-shapes.
This allowed us space for a small intimate area basking in the morning sun that could also accommodate for small groups. Being connected to the open plan kitchen where the door can be fully opened this then becomes a much larger entertaining space on the same level.
We then created a height change in the form of the planted rail sleeper pathway which transitions to the rear of the garden via the outdoor kitchen and steps down into the open space with further built-in seating that can accommodate larger groups in the afternoon and evening sun.
