Garden Workspace in Hackney

Our design for a studio for an illustrator starts with the notion of a creative shed surrounded by trees. The outside is designed to be rough and textured to blend in to its very leafy surroundings, while the inside is all about simplicity and light.

The form and construction of the studio are kept as simple as possible – a timber frame is clad with treated cedar shingles on the outside and with painted timber tongue and groove boards on the inside. The floor is made from varnished birch plywood sheets.

The structural frame sits on “off-the-shelf” Swift Plinth foundations. The foundations are adjustable in order to accommodate any ground movement that could result from being located so close to a large sycamore tree.

The design for the project has been a collaborative exercise with input from the client (that’s us – Douglas Architects with illustrator Shonagh Rae), Conisbee (structural engineers), Swift Foundations (designer/manufacturer for the foundation system) and the main contractor, Neighbour Construction.

Designing and building this project has been an exercise in timber frame construction and easy to source materials. The project has been built by just two builders with the aid of an electrician and a zinc flashing sub contractor. No heavy machinery has been used and all of the materials have been handled by one or two people. We are seeing this as a test bed for future timber frame projects that could be built as self build projects for our clients with minimal input from sub contractors. It is easy to imagine this construction technique being used to build a single storey house at a very reasonable budget.

The project was completed in June 2017.