The Elms luxury appartments

BRIEF

This commercial landscape architecture project was completed for a well known Buckinghamshire property developer. This is a prestige development luxury apartments set within landscaped grounds.

There were several different layouts and configurations within the development and all of the properties have their own garden. The brief was to create garden and landscape designs to provide beautiful outdoor spaces that would feel unique whilst providing a consistent look and feel across the development. Most of the gardens were courtyard gardens, surrounded by 2 storey buildings. This meant that there were some fairly large expanses of wall, which we wanted to divert attention from, whilst making the gardens feel really inviting spaces where the owners would like to sit and relax.

Most of the gardens were quite shady, so the designs needed to take account of the plants that would be happy in these conditions and provide a layout that made the most of the sun that did reach the gardens.

 

DESIGN SOLUTION

We spent a lot of time ‘shadow modelling’ using our Computer Aided Design’ (CAD) software which allowed us to see – for each plot – where the best place would be to place the seating areas and position the other elements of the design.

Contemporary designs were created with for all plots, making each property feel unique and individual, whilst containing common elements that tied the scheme together. We agreed that to provide a ‘wow’ factor, each plot would include a simple water feature. For most plots we designed a water bowl which also lit up at night, together with a lighting scheme that allowed the owners to enjoy their garden after dark. The gardens were designed to be enjoyed both from within the garden and as a beautiful view from within the apartments.

Green Walls were used both to break up the large areas of wall and to create a lush, immersive feeling within the space. As some of the courtyard gardens were quite small, we maximised the opportunity for planting and to create interest by planting strips of low growing plants into the paving. 

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.