Field Barn, Suffolk

A modern country garden

This design creates a modern country garden on a two-acre site in rural Suffolk. Space is shaped throughout in a restrained, modernist style but with a site-sensitive approach.

Linear geometry and carefully considered composition combine with highly naturalistic planting that links to the local countryside. In this way, the design aims to seamlessly integrate architecture, garden and landscape.

The garden transitions north to south from a sense of enclosure to openness, moving from woodland, to ornamental meadow, to wide-open prairie. These transitions echo the changing character of the Suffolk landscape over time, from ancient woodland, to pastoral meadow, to prairie-like arable fields.

Seasonal change sweeps north to south through the garden. Woodland planting peaks in late winter and spring, the ornamental meadow in late spring and summer, and the prairie in summer and autumn, the latter holding its structure and texture deep into winter.

The materiality of the design resonates with the architecture and agricultural character of the site. Limestone, flint, rammed earth, and oak celebrate the natural materiality of East Anglia. The naturalistic planting references the character and flora of Suffolk.