clean and minimalistic water garden, toddington, bedfordSHIRE.

Credits

Mike Long
Lead Designer

Habitat Landscapes
Main Contractor

Toddington, Bedfordshire
Location

Our clients had recently purchased a run down house that resembled a 1970’s ski resort, but it was from these retro roots that a new garden design was inspired. Our client wanted clean and contemporary lines as opposed to a curvaceous design. The swimming pool was an existing feature, although much work to modernise it was required. The position of the pool was off kilter with the main house, and around 6m’s lower down in the garden. This awkward nuance was another inspiration for the design. Instead of fighting the fact that the garden was not perpendicular, we played with the angles to create something that felt like it was always there, and always intentional.

The garden was originally one large sloped space, making most of it unusable. The design separated it into three main terraces, the terrace immediate to the house for morning coffee around tranquil water fall sounds, mid terrace for cooking and dining, whilst the final terrace is for swimming and relaxing by the sunken seating fire pit area.

Water is a main feature throughout the garden, with the swimming pool already existing before we started, we wanted to bring a sense of flow and movement though the use of water in other areas of the garden. A small pool with ‘floating’ deck starts near the house, the highest point, which then drops down through three water blades and into a small rill that runs along both sides of the mid terraces main pathway. From the mid terrace the water then travels down either side of the final staircase and into a small body of water before being pumped back up to its starting point again.

Patterned tiling also features through the garden, giving splashes of interest amidst neat and clean grey walls. The combination of tiling and planting around the pool instantly takes you away to somewhere far hotter than Britain!

Because of the extensive changes in levels through the garden, we needed to create safe transitions between terraces. Not wanting to block the view of the garden from anywhere in the space, we opted for steel tension wire as a suitable balustrade.