Exotic Deck Garden

BALI National Landscape Awards 2008

Exotic Deck Garden 

A garden is a very personal space, one which reflects its owner and their own personal style.

Click the drawing on the right to view a larger image.

The Design Brief:

Apart from the surrounding walls and patio, the garden was a blank canvas. There was nothing in the generously proportioned, level space to hold your attention and the wall at the rear of the property dominated the view creating a visual full stop. As the rear wall has a preservation order on it, prohibiting growing anything up it or fixing anything to it, the design needed to create strong focal points in front of it.

The client wanted to transform their empty garden into an urban sanctuary with a tropical feel. She requested a strong contemporary design that will look good all year round and be easy to maintain. The client also wanted a bold/architectural planting scheme featuring specimen palms and phormiums to add a touch of the exotic.

The Solution:

As the existing patio looses the sun in the afternoon, we have added a large decked area to the rear for relaxation and sunbathing. An Indian sandstone path, visible from the sitting room, connects the existing patio to the raised deck. The path helps to describe the space and draws your eye through the garden. The deck has a ‘jetty’ that comes out to meet the path; it encourages you on to the deck and mirrors the shape of the day bed behind it. Stainless steel has been applied to the front faces of the deck to make it appear to ‘float’.

The built in seating areas and day bed provide a practical seating solution as well as making a bold visual statement. The simplicity of the strong horizontal lines, echoed on the opposite side of the garden by the raised planter help to alleviate the monotony of the heavy red brick wall behind. The bamboos in pots add vertical accents and soften the architectural elements.
The painted render and softwood decking help to bring light into the garden. Cotswold chippings used to mulch the left hand border also brighten up the space. These features combined with the palms and phormiums help to create the tropical feel that the client requested. 

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