Contemporary Barn Conversion Garden, Oxfordshire
BRIEF
We were delighted to be invited to create this contemporary garden for a beautiful barn conversion set within rolling Oxfordshire countryside, with a wonderful view towards the Chiltern Hills.
Our clients had a strong appreciation of design through their own work as property developers and interior designers, and we worked closely with them to develop a detailed brief.
The garden needed a contemporary aesthetic that complemented the stylish barn conversion, built by Stuart Barr, while adding considerably more interest and dividing the extensive landscape into separate spaces that would still read as a coherent whole.
A bothy within the garden was rented as an Airbnb property. The clients wanted greater privacy when guests were staying without making the bothy feel completely disconnected from the rest of the property.
The brief also included:
- a dining area and outdoor kitchen to the side of the house, with a strong sense of containment and the feeling of an outdoor room;
- height variation and somewhere to enjoy the evening sun;
- a contemporary water feature;
- a greenhouse and productive kitchen garden;
- a meadow with space for a beehive;
- and, throughout the design, maintaining and enhancing the views towards the Chiltern Hills.
DESIGN SOLUTION
A great deal of thought went into resolving all of these requirements without allowing one element to compromise another.
We screened the bothy using a combination of short sections of hedge and arch structures. These obscure views from the Airbnb accommodation towards the main garden, while repeating the same hedging units elsewhere helps integrate the bothy into the wider design rather than visually fencing it off.
Natural stone walls divide the principal garden into a series of outdoor rooms and create additional privacy and enclosure. Corten steel detailing and ‘windows’ within the walls provide glimpses into adjoining spaces, maintaining a sense of connection and intrigue.
A water canal runs at 90 degrees to the main axis of the garden, cutting through one of the stone walls and one of the hedges. This deliberate interruption creates drama and makes the water feel as though it continues beyond the immediate space.
Because the site itself was relatively flat, introducing meaningful level changes required a different approach. We created a raised lawned sunbathing area, from which a water cascade falls into the main canal below.
The canal then becomes an important focal point when viewed from the new seating, dining and outdoor kitchen area.
The outdoor kitchen was bespoke-designed using natural stone walls and incorporates a retractable hood, allowing the family to cook and dine outside in a wider range of weather conditions.
Beyond the principal social spaces, a long tree-lined avenue strengthens the sense of journey through the garden. It also solves a practical requirement by providing a route for moving the mower from one part of the property to another.
Outside the ground-floor bedrooms, a courtyard garden creates an attractive outlook from inside the house. Raised beds here merge naturally into the potager and productive garden.
Beyond the greenhouse, the clean, angular geometry used through the more architectural parts of the garden gradually gives way to flowing curved paths and a softer landscape of naturalistic meadow, orchard and beehive.
This transition helps the contemporary garden merge with its rural Oxfordshire setting and the wider views towards the Chilterns.
The clients were delighted with the result and told us that we had “nailed it” — a particularly satisfying response given the complexity of the original brief.
