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Kingfisher House, Juniper Drive, Battersea Reach, London, SW18 1TXWe were appointed as Landscape designers to work very closely with the design team to create a very complex, beautiful garden in Gilston Road, Chelsea. The brief was to create a truly unique garden and to ensure that the space was usable throughout the year with locations at key focal points for the client’s sculptures so the whole garden could also act as a sculpture gallery.
Client : Private
Architect & Interior Designer : LAB Architects & Shalini Misra
Landscape Designer : Bartholomew Landscaping
01
The complete building refurbishment by Lab Architects included the excavation of the neglected garden to create an enormous basement to construct a swimming pool and further accommodation below.
The client wanted to display some of her wonderful art, so the whole garden would also act as a sculpture gallery. It was very important that the garden looked good from the house and views from all rooms were considered very carefully. We ensured that the hard landscaping was carefully designed and the planting proposed would enhance the building’s architecture. Dense evergreens have been used to provide contrast to vibrant flowering borders, and herbaceous planting provides additional lush foliage, texture and flower. Raised planting beds with integral seating enable users to get close to the planting.
02
The garden wraps around the house on 3 sides and it was important to create a sense of drama and intrigue within a visitor’s journey through the exterior spaces. Extensive plant rooms and basement areas extend under most of the plot which means that a lot of the space is roof garden with light-wells; ventilation shafts and skylights to the lower floors.
The boundary walls were enhanced and softened by the installation of bespoke trellis panels and specimen trees and shrub planting. A green wall was located to bring the garden down to the basement adding more lush foliage and softening the outlook from the adjacent rooms. A rich pallet of materials was used contrasting reclaimed, natural hewn stone with crisp sawn and polished surfaces of stone steel and glass.
A controllable lighting system was installed to enhance the overall effect and create varying lighting moods throughout the garden. At night lighting within the water-feature provides for a spectacular dancing display of colour across the different textured wall finishes and planting.