City Magic - Goswell Road, Islington, London
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Garden construction: Bamboo Garden Design
Designer: Justin Greer |
A dark city-centre courtyard is now a magical garden where strong architectural shapes contrast with soft sounds, shimmering lights and dancing reflections.
Delicate bamboo leaves ‘shushing’ gently in the breeze, a dark pool trickling into a neon-lit rill, silvery water cascading down a striking trio of sculptural mirrors – this small, city-centre space is alive with sights, sounds and movement that delight the senses and soothe the spirit. Yet six months previously, it had been a courtyard so dull and dismal that it was generally assumed to be a communal walkway.
Click on an interview by clicking on one of the above images.
‘Even my parents, when I said we were having the garden done, said “What garden?” laughs one of the owners, Charlie Bell. ‘The only thing that was nice about it was the bamboo that we’d planted trying to blot out the side wall and the buildings behind. Looking out from the house, the eye just travelled straight across bare paving to a blank wall and at night, you saw nothing’.
For Charlie and his partner, the lack of a view was a serious disadvantage. Their contemporary, three-storey house, part of a striking, city-centre development that towers behind, is fronted by a wall of glass and all the main living areas – the ground-floor sitting room, the bedrooms above, and the stunning open-plan kitchen-dining area on the top floor – look out onto the courtyard.
‘The aim was to create a garden that would unite the interior and exterior of the house and echo it’s clean, modern feel’ explains designer Justin Greer from Bamboo. ‘So the design is based on a grid that lines up with the verticals of the house – even the paving stones were cut at the quarry to follow the lines exactly. The three mirrored panels of the water cascade echo the three main divisions of the glass wall, and the raised beds and the seating cubes follow the same patterns. You don’t consciously register that, but it helps the design to work as a whole’.
Looking down from the house or sitting in the garden, what the eye does register are exciting shapes, bold, architectural plants, dramatic lighting effects and myriad reflections dancing between water, mirrors and glass. ‘We love entertaining and it’s the perfect place for parties’ says Charlie. ‘The furniture modules can be moved around and used as seating or tables, and people can perch on the edge of the raised beds. But it’s also fantastic just sitting out here on your own with a book, listening to the water and the birds – something we’d never have done before. It’s so atmospheric – part of our brief was a Jurassic jungle feel, which is why we have the tree ferns – it just doesn’t feel like a small London garden’.
So was it very expensive? ‘Yes and no’ he concedes. ‘For a garden, yes, it was a lot of money. Compared to the price of the house and what it’s added in value, no. Bamboo took care of everything and were very professional, from start to finish – they said it would take 6 or 7 weeks and it did – so for the level of service, it was good value. We know, when we sell this house, we’ll get back what we’ve paid for the garden, but in the meantime, it’s ours to enjoy. And we do enjoy it all the time. It’s great to be out here, but even in the depths of winter, it looks fantastic from the house, night or day. We just love it.
Bamboo offer a total service for maximising outdoor space, from conception and design to building and planting: for more information call 0117 316 9580.
Strong design lines, bold planting, stunning water features and clever lighting mean the garden retains its dramatic impact all year round, day or night.
Modular furniture made in ipe, an exotic hardwood, can be moved around and used as tables or stools as needed. An edging of ipe ties in the wall of bamboo.
A mister adds atmospheric to the mini ‘Jurassic jungle’ of tree ferns that add foreground interest as you look from the house.
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Bamboo garden design can help you achieve total transformation of your outdoor living space.
Bamboo Garden Design
95 Lower Redland Road,
Bristol
BS1 6SW
Tel: 0117 316 9580
studio@bamboogardendesign.co.uk
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