A concrete gabion driveway Beaconsfield. The most basic form of Garden Design and Landscaping strikes a chord with a client in Beaconsfield, he tore up the rulebook, fired his Architect and took the creative design concept from the garden back to echo into the property. An avant-garde direction when one is creating a remodel of an existing property.
“I thought it strange at first to create a concept for an existing property where there were no drawings for the proposed house… so I added a few angles and the like and the client very much liked it.”
Garden Materials Brief
Like an unfinished symphony, a bare-bones approach, rustic and simple… or is this refined and brutal? The brief was to keep this project “Back to basics” with the design of the house and garden as symbiotic as one entity.
No flame textured marble paving bespoke manufactured in specialist dimensions and laid in a contemporary format… quite the opposite. Concrete in various forms, galvanised steel, natural stone and gravel with the most basic of planting schemes – wildflowers.
Even though 60 tonnes plus were shifted to other parts of the garden to manage the levels there were in excess of 64 tonnes removed from the site. Considering this volume with 24 tonnes of new concrete and with all of the other materials gave this project a large number. Well over 168 tonnes of materials were moved for this project…
Designing a concrete gabion driveway in Beaconsfield
Angles and a severely basic design… Austere and stark. The sheer brutal forms are softened with the golden-brown shingle and the odd strip of timber. The space becomes a garden when the grass seeds have burst through the concrete. The wildflowers will command a presence in their dedicated space.
Alan Sargent said. “The effect of grained timbers, preformed to provide temporary shuttering for poured concrete; forever casting their natural grains in the subsequent monolith was the most innovate, brutalist, exciting and clever design effect I have seen for many years. Quite brilliant!”
It’s a sharp geometric design that sings the same tune as the house. I think it would be an electronic musical sound like something produced by Tangerine Dream. The cantilevered roof overhangs at a massive triangular angle. The bricks that match the property are to the extreme walls and the same for the soffit… a clever use of materials.
Landscaping Materials
Grasscrete formed the ground level concrete elements of the drive and path. We constructed the retaining walls with a shuttered formwork technique. The timbers which lined the formwork were brushed to enhance the grain. This would echo on the concrete surface. Galvanised steel gabions and the same material for the scaffold handrail. The gravel had a specific colour requirement and CED stepped up to provide an exact match.
Country Supplies supplied the main landscaping materials, on time and with efficient deliveries.
The planting scheme
Lawn Sovereign Turf
Wildflower mix Woodlands Edge and Treasure Chest
Hedging Ligustrum Ovalifolium 1.5 metres high
Trees Prunus Serrula “Tibetan Cherry”
Olea Europaea
Eriobotrya Japonica
The Thanks
Concrete, Grasscrete
Gabions, Gabion Baskets
Gravel and stabilization, CED Stone
General Landscaping materials, Country Supplies
Wildflower seed, Pictorial Meadows
More to follow folks, tune in during the Spring to see the wildflowers…
Credits and Further Information
Project Sunnyside, back to the basics of Landscaping in Beaconsfield
Location Beaconsfield
Completion 2019
Value >£65k
Designed Karl Harrison Landscapes Ltd
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