OUTSIDE IN

Lusting aft er a garden room? Us too. Here’s what you need to know

- Natasha Radmehr

Perhaps it’s the uncommonly glorious weather this summer has thus far bestowed on us, or maybe it’s a heightened appreciation for nature (cheers, Panny-D), but lately I’ve become fixated on garden rooms. I’m not talking about the likes of the draughty old summerhouse my late grandparents had, which we’d sit in once a year if we could elbow the spiders out of the way. I mean properly designed rooms that meld with the outdoors but can be enjoyed year-round – even in Scotland.

“As pretty much everyone knows, conservatories are often too cold in winter and too hot in summer, but a garden room can offer all the benefits of a conservatory while being usable 365 days a year,” says the Edinburgh-based architect David Blaikie. “It’s about correctly balancing the glazing and insulated wall and roof surfaces, as well as factoring in the orientation.”

David uses an app that tracks the path of the sun in order to determine how best to design a garden room. “We want to capture the maximum amount of light at the times of day when it counts; so mornings and evenings,” he explains. For example, the last rays of light can be maximised by projecting a section of the roof upwards so that it bounces light down into the room.