A 1/4 Acre Rural Redesign continued.

Hi
Here is the third blog post in a series in which i am demonstrating my design process of  1/4 Acre rural garden

So far i have introduced you to the site and the dimension and levels drawings.

In order to consider the design I need to know quite a number of things for example: what the clients want, what they like,how they anticipate using the garden, Family and children, pets, the functional aspects of the garden such as washing lines, bin stores and such like. I will take into account the sites locality, what surrounds the site immediately and more distant. An assessment of the site insofar as its aspect, shade and the suns passage, the soil type and pH.

A lot of the geographical information is easily accessible, but to understand the owners requirements a conversation needs to be had and this can be quite in depth and will  also cause the client to consider things that they hadn't thought about! much like designing a House, a new kitchen or bathroom.

That therefore introduces us to the client brief.

If you are not sitting down and having this conversation with whoever you have engaged be they a designer or Landscape build contractor you will need to question how they are going to design your new garden, and what information are they drawing upon, if they say they will come back in 7 days with a concept design either in my humble opinion they have nothing else to do or they are not really thinking about the design. In this particular instance the process have taken a number of weeks to get to concept drawings.

SO Having met with the owners the following is a summary of the client brief.
The property is owned by a professional couple who spend long periods at work and occasionally will travel abroad for work purposes.
There is one teenage child and a large extended family with young children including under 5's.
The couple want to entertain and provision for formal seating of 10 / 12 persons, informally more.
They enjoy spending time in the garden but have little time to maintain the garden. this being mainly at weekends. Maintenance of the garden will be undertaken by themselves.

The garden currently has a well and a small pond. the owners do not want any water in the garden due to the number of toddlers in the extended family.

Provision for a small vegetable garden would be appreciated.

They would like to retain as much lawn as possible

The current garage is to be redeveloped. Planning permission is being sought to demolish and rebuild on a slightly larger footprint in the existing position. The new garage will incorporate a kitchen / food preparation area to the rear. this to open via bifold doors to a terrace for entertaining. The garage's floor level will be some .5m lower than the terrace. This level change is mirrored to the opposite side of the garden in front of the kitchen area and conservatory. They also want a fir pit area

The clients tastes are formal BUT understated ? Defined lines but not all rectilinear and softer. ( i had misread them on that one !) the separation of the garden areas and a separation of views such that there is some disruption of views to prevent the whole being seen at once.

The property borders a main road and there is a bus stop directly opposite the house. the position affords passengers on the top deck of the buses a view into the garden. Screening is to be introduced to obscure this view.

There are a number of mature trees within the site and some formative pruning  is required as is the removal of one particular multi stemmed willow and a dead conifer.

Drainage runs horizontally across the property in front of the kitchen and conservatory and there is a central drain to the patio immediately outside the kitchen patio doors.

                                                                                 Aerial view of the Garden
Please note the position of the conservatory, Garage, house which is semi detached and the area of existing concrete behind garage and to the opposite side of the garden.
On looking at the aerial view the grassed area took on the form of a circular area and i chose to use the areas around the circle so to speak. With the aspect of the garden being west facing the sun falls for most of the day across and towards the garage area which is the focus for the main entertaining area.
I have produced 3 separate concept plans. Each is slightly different to the other but not substantially so that changes are not onerous.
Steps up to the raised level in front of the house have slightly different configurations and the Garage terrace has differing styles of access and design from formal to less so in the firepit area. Screening from the road will be via fastigiate style trees and a multi stem in the border adjoining the terrace. a less formal terrace and patio in front of the kitchen and conservatory and differing types of paving to include stone and crushed stone

Concept 1

Concept2 

Concept 3

Please feel free to leave comments or join me on www.landscapehub.co.uk to discuss the designs and the process.

The next blog posts in this series will demonstrate the Master plans, setting out and planting plans.

Thankyou for taking the time to have a look.