Blending indoors and out

A well-designed garden project can prove almost as much work as building or renovating a house but it will extend living space outdoors and improve the outlook, as these projects demonstrate

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Totally tropical taste

Originally from Jamaica, Conway Blake envisaged creating a lush tropical retreat, complete with banana trees and other exotic plants. The project brief for Yard Architects (yardarchitects.co.uk) involved lowering the floor in the rear half of the London terraced house to achieve a generous ceiling height, while replacing the side wall with a sleek glass box to seamlessly infill the side return.

This minimalist kitchen extension features a glass roof, a pivot door and large window, creating a strong connection to the tropical garden. Above, the small third bedroom was repurposed as a study.

'We wanted the kitchen to maintain a clean, understated aesthetic that would draw focus outward to the garden,' says Conway. 'Before, the house was dark with nowhere for a dining table. Now we spend most of our time down in the kitchen-diner, cooking, reading, eating and entertaining. It's a calm, sunny oasis in the centre of the city.'

Woodland wonderland

Mark and Melody Crowdy have built an exciting new eco home, fusing Californian, Balinese and Cornish styles of architecture into one curvaceous house. Standing on a stunning eight-acre plot in a small Cornish hamlet, views of the valley and woodland were key, with natural materials including stone, timber and planted roofs incorporated into the design. 'It's a fairly substantial house, but sits low on the site,' says Mark.

Arco2 Architecture (arco2.co.uk) worked with the couple's unusual brief to create a unique home. A tree grows up through the atrium, which is spanned by a glass bridge and the living room benefits from views of the site and evening sunshine within a private walled courtyard.