Basalt Garden

More and more people seem to arrange and design their gardens by using architectural resources. This is not remarkable in a country where your own piece of green the majority of the time is rather small. Taking into account the saying “if we long for nature, we will visit the Veluwe”, these clients consider their gardens as outdoor living rooms rather than green areas. For this reason the black granite floor of the living room inside continues in rough basalt outside. The designers were inspired by the interior to design a milk white fence made from polycarbonate.

The area of the outside room is divided into four elements. A three metre high bamboo tree is the only organic object in the garden. A piece of art by Ad Haring and a table can be seen as additional independent elements in that space. The most notable is the mobile greenhouse. In fact it is just a large four poster bed. The short end and the roof of the translucent space on wheels are made of glass. The folding doors on both sides are made of translucent polycarbonate. If lying down in this lounge box and it starts raining expect a real racket.

“If we want to enjoy nature, we will take our car and drive to a forest”.

This motto was symptomatical for the program of demands our cliënts defined for their garden. They refused to treat their backyard as a tiny piece of nature, but rather as the ideal opportunity to enjoy sun and rain in their own secluded world. The only plant a bamboo bush which will grow approximately three meters high, blocking the view from the neighboring houses.

Thus the KO basalt garden has been designed as the extension of the living room; a living room convertible. The black granite floortiling of the interiour livingroom is prolonged in rough basalt stone, each stone being 5 cm wide and variable in length. The white walls inside are reflected in the milky white, translucent polycarbonate garden fences. To stress the fact that the bamboo is merely a means to get higher than the allowed 2 meters of a fence, it too has been fenced in by polycarbonate.

The KO black garden is dominated through four independent elements; the bamboo, a piece of art by Ad Haring representing the body of on of the clients, a basalt table and a detached serre, the KO sun cell. The last item, a glass box on wheels has the measurements of a large bed. On the long side this box is covered with polycarbonate, forming ttranslucent doors. The short sides of the box as well as the roof are entirely made of structural glazing. Protected by the translucent doors one can lie down looking to the rain coming down froom the sky. In summer, when the sun is out, the doors are kept wide open turning the serre into a lounge box.

A special couch has been designed to fit in this garden. It had to serve three different goals; at night it had to be a bed, during daytime a sofa or a sun bed, while keeping open the opportunity to sit straight at a small table. These functions had to be met without creating the need for a large storage. Therefore the couch is modular. Two modules have feet and can serve as a stool or chair, while the middle module can be turned around into a little table. Turning the cushion of this middle element creates a perfectly ergonomical sofa.