Brookthorpe

a sheltered family garden

A semi-rural garden renovation for an extended family. This garden was spacious but inward-looking with major road noise issues, being situated very close to a motorway. The house was an older property that had undergone recent renovations and the garden was already partially landscaped. The main challenge of this design was how mitigate the road noise and make sure that the whole garden was utilised.

Instead of trying to block the road noise I decided to mask it with sounds within the garden. The design focused on bringing sensory elements into the garden such as running water and rustling leaves. I added non-linear, linking routes through the garden to create multiple garden journeys for play and exploration.

The final design included a working garden, a play garden, and long ornamental borders. Sensory elements in the design involved boardwalks amongst golden bamboo and lush foliage planting to provide secluded routes through the garden. In addition, two ‘hideaway’ structures - enclosed sensory areas for relaxation - were established with curved screens, a sunken pond, rain chains over a curved rill, and secluded seating beside a water feature with bubble fountain.

This was a live college project and not yet built. My design was judged by professional standards and gained me a distinction for the project.