WEEK 18 - Garden

The guys are off on holiday, but we've started the process of designing a new garden, which we'll start creating once the construction part of the project has finished.

The big challenge has been to ensure we don't end up with two visually detached properties. The extension, with its contemporary feel, and the existing house, with a more - predictable - suburban design and well-established garden, have the potential to look badly joined together. The design of the garden, therefore, has to blend the contemporary and original architectural elements while, at the same time, ensuring we end up with a functional and usable garden. There is still some tweaking to be done, as the main difficulty is the sloping nature of the plot. However, the main framework is pretty much in place. To address the challenge of multiple levels and slopes, the garden designer has proposed a series of decks, or platforms, in timber and galvanised steel mesh, which form a set of steps. With the right kind of planting, they'll provide a practical, yet architecturally innovative, framing of the south-facing part of the extension.