Garden office poetry

There's not a huge amount of garden office poetry so it's always a pleasure to find an addition to the canon. Here's the first stanza from The Writing Shed by Steve Tanham:

Will I write in here as snows arrive

Locked eyes and fingers frenzied?

Imagined places, chattering teeth

With windows needing mended

You can read the rest of it (there's a nice twist in the tale at the end...) at Steve's Sun in Gemini site here. ---------------------------------------------------------

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Underground studio in the woods

Regular readers of Shedworking will know that the staff has a penchant for underground builds. Here is a marvellous one in Veneto, Italy, from architects Traverso Vighy, which they call the Bosco Retreat. The 9-square-metre build in the Berici Hills near Vicenza is used as a small studio for reading and stargazing. According to Giovanni Traverso from Studio Traverso-Vighy:

"The main idea was to leave the surrounding woodland completely untouched and to construct a nice room with sufficient illumination provided by natural light in the wintertime and enough shade during the summer. The dwelling is rather small, but the light and the tall windows convey the feeling of a larger space where you can really feel immersed in nature. The big window frames look as though they're dug into the ground - the glass reaches the surface of the soil - and the view of the leaves conveys the impression the tree is actually inside the room."

Lots more images of it at their site here.

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Garden office poetry: Deborah Levy

Here is writer Deborah Levy reading her poem 'An amorous discourse in the suburbs of hell'  in her garden office which features prominently at the beginning, middle and end.

Deborah Levy AN AMOROUS DISCOURSE IN THE SUBURBS OF HELL from Chameleoneye Films on Vimeo.

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Writer's studio: The Enchanted Shed

A smashing build in the Vienna Woods in Austria, a writer's studio by Franz&Sue (also used as a garden room for guests and play area for children) which was once a rather decrepit 1930s shed. The ground floor is used for storing garden tools, but the redesiged upstairs is more splendid. The roof is covered in authentic moss. Here's what the architects say about it:

We inserted a large pane of glass into the front wall of the attic floor and carefully insulated the trusses. The walls were panelled with varnished grey fir, and an elevated section at the rear was upholstered so that the attic can also be used as an out-of-the-ordinary guest room.

Lots more detail and photos (by Andreas Buchberger and Veronika Hofinger) at their site here.
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Bournemouth Beach Hut Association

The fine folk at the Bournemouth Beach Hut Association have been in touch to let us know that their website has been updated and refreshed (and moved URL), so please do nip along and have a browse. There's plenty of excellent information in particular about their overnight beach lodges and ongoing construction updates and a cracking video of their seven miles of beaches.

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The Hoofbooth: horsebox wedding businesses

There's an excellent roundup of mobile shedworking businesses on Bridge magazine which looks at 10 examples around the country which work out of converted horseboxes. Most are to do with serving food and drink, but the Shedworking staff were particularly taken with The Hoofbooth (pictured above) - its the work of wedding photographer  Jon Whiles and offers guests the chance to take their own photos in a refurbished Rice horse trailer which comes with its own photobooth and various props which are then collated into a wedding guest book and online album. There are before and after photos of the build on their site.

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Garden library office

Here's a marvellous garden office in London from Turner Architects designed as a study and for use as a spare room with storage. It's a concrete and ply build which has been carefully thought out - here's what the architects say about it:

The roof is constructed from the cast of the foundations – the sheets of wood shuttering that created the cast for the concrete have been used to create the ceiling's beams. It forms a deliberate heavy block above you rather than hiding from the site’s constraints. The heaviness is the weight of learning and respect for the canon – but in looking up, the books themselves create colour and warmth, then up again the tunnelled light is uplifting.

Photos: Adam Scott ---------------------------------------------------------

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Garden office designed to fit unusual space

This intriguing double L-shaped office was designed and built by eDEN Garden Rooms down the side of a home in Reigate.

"Our client came to us with a vision to turn the space at the side of their home into a multi-functional office," says Mia Walmsley from eDEN. "The beautiful ceiling-to-wall windows help to punctuate the shape of the garden room, and coupling these with large bi-fold doors ensures that light streams into an otherwise potentially dark room.

"As well as plenty of practical living and working space, we also included integrated storage at the far end of the garden room, which works neatly with the streamlined design, tucking away down the side of the main house. As you can see, although this project is built in relative proximity to this customer’s home, there is still plenty of access space around the garden room itself, which is accentuated by their large social patio area."

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Cressida Cowell's writing shed path

Path to the writing shed, February pic.twitter.com/1bXd4XyvRT

— Cressida Cowell (@CressidaCowell) February 15, 2018

You can read more about Cressida Cowell's life as a shedworker here. -------------------------------------------------
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Garden office clad in burnt larch

An unusual and lovely exterior from Manchester-based Kabin Company. It's a triple-glazed home office clad in burnt larch with a sedum roof. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sprout Up: Shedworkers

Sprout Up is a garden design, maintenance and advice service in south London run by former BBC television production manager (including Top Gear and various documentaries) Seonaid Royall. She works in a Garden Affairs flat roof model garden office with double doors and two long windows to the front. There is a nice Q&A with her on the site but here's a snippet to whet your appetite:

What made you decide to choose a garden room for your business?
When I set up my business I wanted to spend time getting to know my clients and their requirements so I could offer exactly what they needed. Expanding fast into an office space with rental fees wasn’t a sensible option. The garden room gave me the flexibility to grow successfully without paying overheads, while staying close to my family.

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Garden office ballet studio

After and before shots above of a build from eDEN Garden Rooms which is being used as a ballet studio, occasional office space and summer guest room. It is built boundary-to-boundary with an additional window on the left side for ventilation. At the front is a decked area with above overhang featuring LED spotlights. Other features include underfloor heating, recess lighting, and full plasterboard and paint finish on the walls as standard.

"By ensuring that lighting is recessed into the ceiling, this means the customer does not compromise on losing any internal height, which is extremely important when being used to practice ballet!" said eDEN spokeswoman Mia Walmsley. "One particularly interesting feature on this garden room is the use of horizontal cedar slatting to the right side of the decking area, which is both an aesthetically pleasing and practical addition. With bi-fold doors, there is the inevitable need for the doors to be stacked on one side when open. Rather than allow them just to ‘hang’, our customer wanted to come up with a quirky design feature to focus the eye away from the stacked doors and to create a stylish finish to the design. The horizontal slatting does just that, and contrasts beautifully with the vertical cladding and decking area, adding a fantastic personal touch to the design."

One of the members of the landscaping team which worked on the garden after the office was finished was so impressed with the build that they ordered an eDEN Garden Room for himself.

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Can I claim tax back on my garden office?

This evergreen question gets another look, this time by Helen Donkin, Director of Smart Spaces (one of their models is picture above). Writing on LinkedIn, she focuses on tax benefits including VAT and corporation tax, business rates and capital gains. Here's a snippet:

Can I offset the cost of my garden building against corporation tax?
As long as your garden building is not subject to planning permission and is considered to be a movable object, you may be able to offset the cost of purchase against corporation tax. All equipment that is bought for use within a business qualifies as capital allowance. And if the equipment qualifies as capital allowance, it can be classified as capital expenditure, which can be deducted from a business’s profits for the purposes of tax.

Well worth a read, though we would always recommend talking to your tax adviser before making any claims.
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Shepherd's hut for Much Ado Books

Much Ado Books in Alfriston, East Sussex, is one of the Shedworking staff's favourite bookshops so we were delighted to learn that they are adding a shedworkingesque element to their business in the form of a shepherd's hut (picture above). The shop is undergoing significant renovations at the moment and the hut will be filled with books. Much Ado is also becoming a Social Enterprise (read more about this on their Prospero's Project site). Here's what they say about one of the new developments:

Currently we are developing a project giving new books to clients of foodbanks. We think it vitally important to reach people who may not be in a position to own books – or even to reach a library – with books they can enjoy. So we’ve been supplying hundreds of books to foodbanks in Hailsham and Eastbourne, and hope to expand the number of foodbanks we work with – we recently began working with a foodbank in Newhaven. We are also working with local schools, including the Ringmer Academy. From helping supply books for their libraries to printing projects with the students, we hope to share the pleasures of reading.

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Amazon's Spheres garden office

As garden offies go, Amazon's Spheres project is quite something. An open-plan workplace for the company's employees in Seattle, it's inspired by conservatories such as those in Kew Gardens and has more than 40,000 individual plants, and over 300 plant species from more than 50 countries. The complex of three connected domes - which look a little like the Eden Project's main buildings - includes treehouse meeting rooms, river and waterfall features, and a four-story living wall.

“Our goal with The Spheres was to create a unique gathering place where employees could collaborate and innovate together, and where the Seattle community could gather to experience biodiversity in the center of the city,” said Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities, John Schoettler.

The largest dome is 27m tall and 39 metres in diameter.

Photos: Seattle City Council

With the opening of The Spheres, we’re excited to push the boundaries of architecture for #Seattle. Combining nature with urban offices, our newest building features a conservatory, local cafes, as well as a public visitors’ center.

A post shared by The Spheres (@seattlespheres) on Jan 31, 2018 at 9:46am PST

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