Challenge

Landscaping this prestigious residence on the south coast of England represented a significant challenge given the exposed, beachfront location, the property’s clean, modern design aesthetic, and the client’s requirement for minimal maintenance.

Solution

In balancing these considerations, all exterior spaces open to the prevailing weather are laid with either grey decking or white sand, and there are no areas of soft landscaping. However, the opportunity did exist to green three more protected spaces: a balcony; an open roof terrace overlooking the sea; and a second, completely private roof terrace, which forms a secluded and intimate oasis.

A total of 12 large bespoke steel planters were commissioned by Stopher Design Partnership, the architects responsible for the complete redesign and refurbishment of the property, in sizes up to 3000mm, and in various geometric forms. Given the extreme coastal location, the planters were fabricated from 1.5mm thick 316 [marine] grade steel, powder-coated. One of the planters, in a purely functional area, was hot dipped galvanised to marine specifications.

The residence's modern design is consistently applied through white walls, frameless glass balustrades, grey roof tiles, and through the choice of aluzinc for rainwater goods and zinc for wall cappings. These strongly modern architectural elements are both softened and accentuated by large areas of bespoke walling, hand-laid in a warm bronze and copper stone which was specially sourced for the project. To complement the design of the house, IOTA’s steel planters were powder-coated to RAL 9006 (White Aluminium), and the planting is soft, informal and naturalistic, picking up on the warm tones within the walling.

Outcome

The Stopher Design Partnership is skilled in both architectural design and landscape design, and operates on the philosophy that “the setting for a home is just as important as the building itself. So we work on the landscape and architecture as a single, integrated project – each complementing the other, bringing out the best in both”, as has been shown in this project.