Auchattie
A garden space in tandem with the architecture of the home.
This Royal Deeside garden was a dream for the Terra Foras team, taking on both the garden design and construction phases of the work alongside award-winning Brown & Brown Architects and Coldwells Build.
Working on the outdoor space in parallel for design and construction is the type of “we should have done that” statement we hear from clients of new build properties. This client, however, had the foresight to make that happen from the outset, allowing for genuine everything-thought-about connection between building and land.
The building features large windows with lots of glazing, so there’s a great sensory feeling of the outside coming into the space of the home. With this in mind, the homeowner wanted a “light touch” approach to design so that the house would feel like it is sitting “in” the setting and a feeling like the house is “wrapped” on all sides by the outside space.
We kept the design approach simple and natural, creating changes in levels to support the lay of the land, and in designing dedicated spots for: a growing garden with fruit trees, a shaded spot with a beautiful Acer tree, a granite and gravel courtyard, a wildlife garden with pond to connect to the wider landscape, and future space for a bothy.
Sitting on an old home site, the opportunity existed for us to bring old and new together. The space features an existing stone dyke around the growing garden, and we made use of reclaimed grantie cassies for the shaded spot. A vertical timber screen helps create distance to the road making it feel a sheltered, peaceful spot. We love how this project was a simple enhancement of the old for a functional, beautiful space for the future.
The garden has proven to be as important as the house we built
"9 months after the garden was completed, we have already had immense pleasure from the garden as we watch it come to life, harvest our first small crops and enjoy watching the wildlife and birds who are also enjoying it. The garden has proven to be as important as the house we built and it is with credit to the full team at Terra Foras for all the enjoyment we already have and will have for years to come."
"When we returned to Aberdeen from London after twenty two years, we left behind a really nice garden which we had developed once the kids stopped playing football. While we liked our new house very much, the garden was a major disappointment. It was a small town plot, which we couldn’t change.....
"We needed to undertake a major overhaul of our garden once our house was built. We did not really have a ‘vision’ and needed someone with the expertise in both design and knowledge of flora and fauna.....
"When we contacted Terra Foras our city centre back garden was overgrown, uneven, difficult to keep on top of and lacked a decent seating area. It was desperately needing a makeover on a big scale, so we knew we needed to get the professionals in.....
“Our garden was looking uncared for due to the structure of the garden making it difficult. It wasn't suitable to give our children the freedom to play in it with some features making it unsafe. We also didn’t have the time needed, to maintain it properly as it was.....
"It was Terra Foras’s design led approach and innovative thinking that attracted us to them. We hoped the garden redesign would create a visually exciting and very useable external space. This has, without question, been achieved.....
"When we returned to Aberdeen from London after twenty two years, we left behind a really nice garden which we had developed once the kids stopped playing football. While we liked our new house very much, the garden was a major disappointment. It was a small town plot, which we couldn’t change.....
"We needed to undertake a major overhaul of our garden once our house was built. We did not really have a ‘vision’ and needed someone with the expertise in both design and knowledge of flora and fauna.....
"When we contacted Terra Foras our city centre back garden was overgrown, uneven, difficult to keep on top of and lacked a decent seating area. It was desperately needing a makeover on a big scale, so we knew we needed to get the professionals in.....
“Our garden was looking uncared for due to the structure of the garden making it difficult. It wasn't suitable to give our children the freedom to play in it with some features making it unsafe. We also didn’t have the time needed, to maintain it properly as it was.....
"It was Terra Foras’s design led approach and innovative thinking that attracted us to them. We hoped the garden redesign would create a visually exciting and very useable external space. This has, without question, been achieved.....