Wayfarers Cottage Garden Cabin and Shelter

These new buildings included a day cabin and large greenhouse with carport structure. Both are constructed from timber framing with rustic rough sawn timber rainscreen cladding and the carport uses stone reclaimed from the very ground below its walls.

The architect used their joinery and metalworking skills to fulfil their ambition to design and personally handcraft their own bespoke furniture pieces and metal hardware for the buildings, which were produced in their local workshop. The two structures are adorned with machined brass door handles, a crafted OSB storage bench and bespoke floral patterned laser cut steel bracing plates inspired by the client’s two favourite plants.

Through a close working relationship with the builder, the architects were able overcome the challenges of material shortages and price hikes at the peak of the pandemic. This required careful consideration and greater effort to use the materials available at the time, including the cladding timbers being cut down from standard fencing timbers as well as reclaiming and reusing old Blue Lias stone, previously buried around the site from old buildings.

The rustic stone walls give a tumbled down ruinous aesthetic, that when combined with the layering of the rough sawn timber cladding, helps ground these building in the landscape and evoke the spirit of English Romanticism.

The result has been to create a cabin, greenhouse and carport that have elements of traditional character but are unashamedly contemporary in their detailing. These focal point buildings provide a canvas for a new planting scheme as well as creating spaces to dwell, reflect and enjoy the cottage garden.

Annual CO2 data was not provided