Design-Build-Care
North Shore, Auckland

Our clients wanted us to design and build an entirely new garden around the ‘bones’ of the old one. The brief called for a design that accommodated the existing house, garage and motor-court, some precious areas beneath large pohutukawa and oak trees, and pragmatically to address the runoff from uphill neighbours.

With no structural or cosmetic work to the exterior of the house, the challenge for our designers was to achieve a whole new visual feel for the property simply through some ‘grand gardening’.The grandeur of the completed garden is much appreciated, by both client and award judges. This new garden celebrates the rustic nature of the wooded site and cedar, as well as the reflecting the clients’ personalities, and their love of golf.  A putting green and chipping surface integrated into the garden is put to good use.

A subdued material palette of cedar, honed concrete, plaster, stone and steel combine to create a clean and functional range of spaces which enhance and honour the cedar-clad house. The organic shapes of the masonry and paving, contrast with the architectural rectilinear forms of timber elements and the predominantly native planting palette includes exotic accents of flower and colour, which accentuate the garden’s smart-casual feel.