Dove and Tse

Projects / 05

Garden House

A brick base, a larch box and a walled garden, designed together for an end-of-terrace corner plot.

Location
London
Type
New house, end of terrace
Fig. 01From the side street: the larch box oversails the brick base.

The place

An end-of-terrace corner plot on a street of Victorian stock-brick houses. The site turns onto a side street, so the house is seen from two directions and its garden wall runs the length of the pavement.

The brief

A family home of around 140 m² with a kitchen that opens to the garden, a study and two bedrooms — and a garden that is part of the house rather than what is left over.

The design

Two boxes in two materials. A red brick base holds the line of the terrace and carries on as the garden wall; a first floor clad in open-jointed larch sits on it and steps 900 mm forward to shelter a recessed front door. Windows are cut cleanly into the brick and the larch, with nothing standing proud. At the back the kitchen moves into a timber garden room with a sedum roof, which continues as a larch pergola over the terrace. Its terracotta floor runs straight out of the doors, and its window deepens into a seat facing the borders.

The garden wall becomes the house; the kitchen floor becomes the terrace.

Fig. 02Long section: street, house, garden room and garden.

Garden room and pergola

The kitchen opens on two sides to the terrace; the sedum roof extends as a pergola that will carry climbers.

Fig. 03The garden room, pergola and terrace.

Inside the garden room

Terracotta underfoot, brick on the party wall, a larch ceiling and the window seat looking straight into the borders.

Fig. 04Inside the garden room, looking out to the terrace and borders.

Models

Card massing models: the brick base, the larch box and the garden room as three simple volumes.

Fig. 05Massing model (rendered).
Fig. 06Model detail: the cantilever over the entrance (rendered).

House and garden

A walled garden of three rooms — terrace, lawn and borders — held by hit-and-miss brick on the side street.

Fig. 07Massing model.

Drawings

Plans, elevations and details

Each plan sits beside a view of the spaces it shows; the drawing set follows, from the exploded axonometric to a 1:20 detail.

Fig. 08Ground floor plan.
Fig. 09The dining room, open to the garden kitchen, with the tall window onto the terrace.
Fig. 10First floor plan.
Fig. 11The front bedroom behind the deep street window.
Fig. 12Exploded axonometric: brick base, larch first floor, roof.
Fig. 13Axonometric of house and garden.
Fig. 14Street elevation.
Fig. 15Garden elevation.
Fig. 16Cantilever over the entrance, 1:20.

Landscape

The garden, room by room

The garden is planned as a sequence of rooms that change through the year, tied to the house by shared materials: terracotta inside and out, the same red brick for house and walls, larch for fence, pergola and window seat.

  1. 01

    Street garden

    A multi-stem birch and soft grasses behind a brick and larch-slatted wall.

  2. 02

    Terrace

    Terracotta continuing the kitchen floor, a built-in brick bench and the pergola.

  3. 03

    Lawn

    Stepping stones between clipped yew domes, open to the sky.

  4. 04

    Borders

    Grasses and perennials against hit-and-miss brick, a multi-stem Amelanchier and pleached maples.

Fig. 17Site and landscape plan.
Fig. 18Summer — From the pergola down the garden: yew domes, stepping stones and pleached maples.

Planting palette

  • Amelanchier lamarckiiMulti-stem: white spring blossom, red autumn colour
  • Betula pendulaMulti-stem birch in the street garden
  • Acer campestrePleached field maples screening the rear wall
  • Taxus baccataClipped yew domes at the edge of the terrace
  • Hakonechloa macraJapanese forest grass in the borders
  • Geranium 'Rozanne'Long-flowering ground cover
  • Trachelospermum jasminoidesEvergreen climber on the fence and pergola
  • Sedum mixGreen roof to the garden room

Materials

  • Red multi stock brickGround floor, garden walls, hit-and-miss panels
  • Siberian larchOpen-jointed cladding, soffit, pergola, fence
  • Terracotta quarry tileKitchen floor running out to the terrace
  • SedumGarden room roof
  • Bronze aluminiumCopings, frames and rainwater goods
  • Precast stoneCopings and bench top
Fig. 19Material samples: brick, larch, terracotta, sedum, bronze, stone.

Project

Project data

Location
London
Type
New house, end of terrace
Site
c. 240 m²
GIA
c. 140 m²
Architectural design
Dove + Tse
Landscape
Dove + Tse
Structural engineer
TBC
Contractor
TBC