Bringing the outside inside – garden architecture in Cheshire

Seeking a contemporary remodelling and extension to their traditional detached house, in Culcheth, our clients sought a garden architecture design that created a series of internal and external spaces to allow the whole property to be used all year round as well as making best use of their large plot, which was not overlooked by neighbouring properties.

Hunter Architects & Planners were appointed, along with a garden designer, to bring this garden architecture concept to fruition.

The resulting collaboration creates a home that works equally as well during the winter and summer months. Particularly though, when the weather is right, the combined house and garden architecture creates an amazing oasis for our clients. It is easy to imagine this property as a holiday home in a far-flung part of the world, such is its calming, relaxing and fun nature. Whether it is the nature of the rendered elevations, which hark to more European styles of architecture or the encouragement, by the inclusion of an external kitchen and water feature, to use the external spaces thought the year, this is a property that is perfect for entertaining, further increasing the sense of the essence of a holiday; the escape from the every day and the sense of adventure and different experiences.

The main ground floor space which provided views and links to the garden architecture was located to the rear of the property and combined a kitchen, living and dining space. Unlike many family rooms which are often one large, unbroken space, this project sought to create linked but separate spaces for the individual functions, with the main living spaces and kitchen spaces having physical and psychological links to the outside spaces and garden architecture.

Our clients, who envisaged a space for entertaining, preferred to have the main access to the garden through the kitchen, with two large, but slimline, sliding doors providing a seamless link and influence to the garden architecture, which itself featured an external cooking and dining space.

The sunken living space, being separated from the kitchen space by the use of a partition wall as well the steps, retains its own character and function while still benefiting from the links to the external spaces. A large, slimline framed, picture window provides an unbroken view of the garden architecture, which at night-time is illuminated to retain both a visual interest but also functional, useable space. A water feature, which is integral to the garden architecture brief, was designed and located between the internal and external living spaces and benefits both spaces differently. The reflections of the water on the ceiling of the living space, both during the day and at night create a fantastic and feature to the room.

The project was not just about the garden architecture but sought to create a substantially extended and remodelled property, creating four double bedrooms, including a luxury master bedroom suite with dressing room and en-suite. This master bedroom suite was located so that it could benefit from views over the garden architecture meaning further reinforcing the link from inside to outside, even at first-floor level.

The property has been previously extended although was a typical single-storey kitchen extension with limited natural light and views over the, soon to be, redesigned garden architecture, meaning the extension needed to be reconsidered in light of our clients brief.

Photographs/Images © Hunter Architects & Planners & Hannah Collins Garden Design