News

Surrey barn approved

June 14, 2019 by mike in Garden Design, Landscape Design

Permission has just been received with Ben Reed Architects to reconfigure and extend an existing barn by responding to the character of the area with the ‘natural’ landscape being a primary focus for the proposal. Terrain has dictated the form of the building and garden with terraces at different levels designed to partially embed the house within the ground and surrounded it with planting merging with the woodland to the flanks. Split-levels help create individual spaces which will allow creation of usable gardens for the new family home which looks out over the River Lox and farmland beyond.

Mature shrub planting

May 18, 2019 by mike in Garden Design

Planting mature container grown shrubs 2 – 4 metres high to make a new setting for a recently completed house. This initial planting gives immediate height for a 50m long border which will wrap around a new sitting area overlooking a river below the house. Sentinel Persian Ironwood (Parrotia persica Vanessa) shrubs frame views out from the house to the river and lakes in the distance.

Transformation of farm

April 22, 2019 by mike in Garden Design, Landscape Design

Permission gained for the conversion of a derelict farm yard; removal of the modern structures within the courtyard will reduce the intrusion of modern farms buildings and leave the repaired and converted barns embedded within the proposed hedges and groups of trees. Within the central courtyard, a fully enclosed garden will be the main relaxation and family garden space with a swimming pool, small lawn, areas to sit and eat and planted beds all related to and coordinated with the enclosing architecture. Around the buildings, an extensive area will be restored to a more natural landscape with grass, areas of wild flower meadow, native shrubs and a small copse of trees.

Waterlily House

March 18, 2019 by mike in Landscape Design

Application submitted for a house of exceptional quality and innovation through NPPF Paragraph 79 application. The house, designed by AR Design Studio, will float on a lake created through the transformation of a redundant agricultural reservoir. Our landscape masterplan provides waterside habitats and meadow gardens whilst retaining long views over open countryside.

Surrey barn application

March 6, 2019 by mike in Garden Design, Landscape Design

The brief for landscape design is to devise a landscape strategy for the whole site that enhances visual aesthetics and the ecological value; creates attractive usable garden space that will accompany a new family home; responds to the character of the area where landscape remains a primary focus of the site, and informs the new building form, with a ‘naturalistic’ garden from that blends with the surround rural landscape; and minimises any impact that new building additions might have, by using suitable planting and designed landscape elements to help screening and embedding the building within the landform.

Woodland garden house

July 2, 2018 by mike in Landscape Design

Close collaboration with architects AR Design Studio has achieved unity of house and garden. Our views created through the woodland gardens to and from the house, and framed by its architecture, unify the experience of internal and external spaces. Mike is now working with our client to complete the terraces and gardens that surround and flow under and around the house and through its central courtyard.

‘Sun Rising’ chosen for magazine

June 26, 2018 by mike in Art Studio

Mike’s painting ‘Sun Rising’ was selected by the picture editor of Environment and Arts magazine Resurgence and Ecologist to accompany a review of a book celebrating the joys of early rising: http://www.resurgence.org

Ginger tries the rusty steel bridge

May 10, 2018 by mike in Garden Design, Landscape Design

Ginger the Vizla, fearlessly tries our new zig-zag bridge in the Japanese Garden at Coles. Fabricated from recycled steel reinforcement bars, the narrow bridges is a test of nerves for anyone who fears they may fall in the pond.

Cottage Orné in Somerset

April 26, 2018 by mike in Landscape Design

This house, designed by Francis Johnson and Partners Architects, revives the form of the “Cottage Orné” combining elements of vernacular architecture with fanciful touches of “Gothick”. The plan of the house is a variation of the “butterfly” layouts popular in the Edwardian period, which maximise the amount of sunlight and fresh air entering the house and increase the number of rooms with good views. Picturesque gardens and setting for the house with winding drive, extensive orchards, woodlands, meadows for English Longhorn cattle, shrubberies and rockeries, and a swimming pond are all designed to complement the Picturesque form of the house and surrounding landscape that has been the inspiration for the concept.

West Horsley Place

January 2, 2018 by mike in Landscape Design

West Horsley Place received full backing from Guildford Borough Council allowing the creation of a vibrant visual and performing arts and craft centre, complementing the ‘opera in the woods’ in which Grange Park Opera performed its’ first season last summer. Illustration: Our proposal for remodelling the surrounds to Place Farm, part of the application.

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