The brief was unusual, in the way that the best briefs always are. I'd like to sit by the river without sitting outside. That was it.
The site was a long, low garden in Cambridgeshire that ran straight to a slow river and a meadow beyond it. There was an existing patio — slightly windy, slightly cold, unused for nine months of the year. Our customers had been thinking, on and off, for a decade about how to get more use out of it without ruining what made it special.
Designing for the meadow.
The instinct, at first, was to build big. A wide, full-height glass enclosure with sliding doors that fold completely back. We sketched it. It was beautiful. It was also too much building — the kind of thing that announces itself, that becomes the view rather than letting you look past it.
So we made it smaller. 5.4 metres by 3.6, with a pitched glass roof and full-height sliders on three sides. The frame in a deep anthracite, almost black, almost invisible against the hedgerow at dusk.
Build it small enough to disappear, and the view does the rest.
The thing about the floor.
Customers always ask about the structure, the glass, the locks. They almost never ask about the floor. And the floor, here, was the thing.
We laid a poured-resin base, 35mm above grade, to lift the room just enough that on a wet day in November the room feels like a deck rather than a damp box. Every garden has a wet bit. The trick is to be a millimetre above it.
What we'd do differently.
Honestly? Not much. The customers asked for a single ceiling pendant — we now wish we'd added a low warm light at deck-skirt level, washing the lawn. It would have made the room feel like it floated at night. Next time.
We've since made deck-level lighting a default question on every quote. That's the useful thing about projects: they keep teaching you how to ask better questions.
By the numbers.
- Footprint — 5.4 × 3.6m (19.4m²)
- Glass — 10mm tempered, three sliding walls
- Frame — RAL 7016 anthracite, aluminium
- Build time on site — 4 days
- Survey to handover — 9 weeks
If you've got a view that deserves a frame — or a patio you're not quite using — we'd love to come and walk it with you. The first conversation is free, the survey is free, and we'll bring the tea.