Landscape Design for Luxury Townhouses
BRIEF
This commercial landscape architecture project was completed for a well-known Buckinghamshire property developer as part of a prestigious development of luxury townhouses and villas set within landscaped grounds.
With several different property layouts and configurations, the brief was to create individual gardens that felt distinctive while maintaining a consistent design language across the development.
Many were courtyard gardens enclosed by two-storey buildings, creating large areas of wall as well as significant shade. The landscape design therefore needed to make these spaces feel inviting, increase the impact of planting and make the most of the sunlight that reached each individual plot.
DESIGN SOLUTION
We used CAD shadow modelling for each plot to understand how sunlight moved through the courtyards and identify the best positions for seating and other elements.
Individual contemporary designs gave each property its own identity while repeating selected features to create continuity across the development.
Simple water features became a recurring focal point, with illuminated water bowls or globes used in many plots. Carefully designed garden lighting allowed the courtyards to remain visually engaging after dark and ensured that they could be enjoyed as views from inside the villas as well as spaces in which to sit.
Green walls break up larger areas of architecture and create a more immersive planted environment. In smaller courtyards, strips of low-growing plants were incorporated directly into the paving, increasing planting without sacrificing valuable usable space.
The result is a collection of individual courtyard landscapes united by a coherent, contemporary design language appropriate to a high-quality residential development.
As a design studio we work on a wide range of both residential and commercial projects. You can see another example of a commercial courtyard garden (Sussex) here.
