courtyard Archives - Nina Baxter Garden Design

Urban Courtyard Garden, South London

tcrawford — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 16:11:41 +0000

Urban Courtyard Garden, South London

The Design Brief

To create a secluded sanctuary for the family to spend time in eating, relaxing, working and entertaining. A garden space that works in harmony with the style and age of the house, while being a little more up-to-date and contemporary.

The Challenge

The house sits on a corner plot of a classic Victorian terrace in a densely populated part of London, with all the surrounding noise and busyness that entails. A large tower block looms nearby, and mature street trees just the other side of the fence make the garden feel damp and shady, despite its aspect.

The Design Solution

A cosy timber ‘shack’ sits at the heart of the garden, and is surrounded by raised bed planting to insulate it from the urban hum just feet away. It creates an enclosed area for relaxing and working from home while blocking views of the 1960s council estate nearby, diminishing the sense of being overlooked. The planting is bold and textural with an emphasis on foliage to create year-round interest, and deaden sound. Brickwork and Corten steel reflect the age of the property while composite cladding is used to modernise the aspect of the 1950s garage. The space has a cosy, intimate Mediterranean feel, despite the rush of modern life around it.

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Small Courtyard Garden, Beckenham

tcrawford — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 11:58:18 +0000

Small Courtyard Garden, Beckenham

The Design Brief

A formal yet relaxed space with an area for entertainment featuring permanent seating and a source of heat. The main impetus for the design was to reduce the sense of being overlooked by creating more structure and interest for the eye to alight upon within the garden itself.

The Challenge

A north-facing space, over-shadowed by a four-storey townhouse and directly overlooked on all sides, shady and cold against the house but with areas of warm sunshine along the right-hand side and especially towards the rear.

The Design Solution

To make the areas directly adjoining the house more suitable for entertainment, raised beds were built to minimise draughts and create a more enclosed space and wall capping was added to allow for plenty of seating. A fire-pit was installed, balanced by a decorative cut corten steel panel opposite. The garden was re-focused along its sunnier side through the construction of a wooden pergola that culminates in two seating areas to fully enjoy what sun the garden receives.

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Small Family Garden, Beckenham

tcrawford — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 09:54:45 +0000

Small Family Garden, Beckenham

The Design Brief

The client wanted a modern British aesthetic to inform the design, in harmony with her new extension, to create a real sense of continuity from the inside space out and to achieve a feeling of calm sanctuary and privacy through new screening, both with planting and materials.

The Challenge

The recent addition of the extension to the house had made the outdoor space an unwieldy rectangular shape, with several changes of level and some poorly maintained brick perimeter walls. The lack of screening and the proximity of a main road allowed passers-by to see into the space, which felt very exposed, giving no real reason to venture outside.

The Design Solution

Bespoke cedarwood slatted fencing forms the perimeter, hiding the crumbling brick walls and creating privacy without feeling oppressive, and the garden is further screened from the outside world by evergreen trees, and planting with year-round interest. A limestone seating area is reached by steps from a deck of treated scaffold boards that abuts the house and references its interior, creating a sense of flow and the feeling that the outside world is being kept at arms length.

Garden built by Beauview Landscapes.

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Courtyard Garden, Sundridge Park, Bromley

tcrawford — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 09:48:14 +0000

Courtyard Garden, Sundridge Park, Bromley

The Design Brief

The client wanted to create a tranquil. grown-up and restful space that was easy to maintain, as teaching piano from home, she needed the views from her teaching space to remain consistently smart without a lot of tidying up each day.

The Challenge

The space is wider than it is long so the view was dominated by an unattractive back-fence and had a considerable slope up to the tired lawn. The condition of the soil had deteriorated over the years so none of the existing planting looked healthy enough to distract the eye from the old-fashioned shed and its crumbling concrete base.

The Design Solution

The core solution was to build additional levels into the garden to create a journey around the space, despite its small size. A sunken area with decorative tiling gives a sense of seclusion whilst the pergola and swing seat create height and drama, balanced by a gentle water feature to create a focal point and aid relaxation. Light neutral colours on all painted surfaces fill the garden and house interior with light, and this is contrasted with a zingy palette of orange, yellow and purple planting, all in raised planters for easy maintenance to create a sense of privacy and seclusion whilst also offering ‘perched’ seating.

Garden built by Beauview Landscapes.

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