Green light for rooftop building in London

We've looked at the concept of sheds and garden offices on roofs several times over the last decade here on Shedworking and in an interesting piece of news, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire has now announced (at the London First Building Summit) that proposals are in place to place tiny homes on top of the capital's rooftops.

The homes will be built on selected London roofs by the summer after Homes England agreed a £9 million funding deal with Apex Airspace Developments. The properties – which will be built on five sites across the capital, Tooting, Wanstead, Walthamstow, Putney and Wallington – are largely constructed off site before being winched on top of buildings, hopefully minimising disruption to residents. The first of the homes will be completed by the summer and in total 78 rooftop homes will be built under the three year deal.

Image: Didden Village, Rotterdam, a rooftop house complex from MVRDV  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Garden office close to house

While garden offices tend to be down at the bottom of the garden, here's a reminder from Garden Affairs that you can bring your commute down even further if you position it close to your house (in this case for ease of access). It's in Romsey, Hampshire, and is from the company's Linea range, measuring 4m x 5m. Features include larch wood exterior horizontal cladding, no roof overhang (so can be placed close to a boundary), hidden, internal guttering for water drainage, and a green sedum roof. The exterior stain finish is silver grey with painted doors and windows in grey. All the doors and windows are double-glazed and the whole build is fully insulated. As the photo below shows, the owner uses it for various purposes including as an office, for watching television, and for storing books.

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10,000 new garden annexes in the pipeline, says insurer

According to figures from Churchill Home Insurance, around 10,000 applications to build garden offices and other types of garden annexes are being made to councils every year. It even claims that three and four-bedroom homes with some kind of garden building like a garden office go on the market at prices up to 27% higher than those of their neighbours (figures based on data from 100 estated agents across the UK).

About 70 per cent are entirely new builds, the rest are conversions. The study - which is based on freedom of information requests to nearly 400 local councils - indicates that only two in every ten applications are turned down. Between 2015 and 2018 there has been a 5% increase in successful applications for new garden annexes and a 7% increase for conversions.

Craig Rixon, head of Churchill Home Insurance, said: “Developing your own, new or converted garden annexe can be a very exciting process and is becoming ever more popular as people get increasingly savvy about home renovations. Whether you’re building an annexe for an older relative or just for the additional space, it is often a cheaper and easier alternative than moving to a larger property. It is important that you inform your insurer of any home renovations you plan to make so that your home and its contents are adequately insured during the course of the renovation and upon completion.”

Over the last year Torbay council received the most applications (466) and Wigan Metropolitan Council the least (none). Image courtesy Modern Garden Rooms ------------------------------------------

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Why your next garden office could be a beach hut

The Plymouth Herald has a nice feature about The Clay Factory in Ivybridge just outside Plymouth, a kind of superduper co-working and venue office space for entrepreneurs in an old factory building. Part of their offering is a hot desking facility based in a dozen beach huts which they say are "ideal for start-ups, freelancers and home based entrepreneurs looking to build".  There is 24/7 access, parking, visitor access, postal services and super fast wifi. They complement the converted shipping container office spaces already up and running.
Thanks to Uncle Wilco for his eagle eyes. ------------------------------------------

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Garden office for digital marketing agency

A nice case study from Green Studios focusing on this garden office for a regular digital agency homeworker in Warwick. It's a bespoke build of around 15 square metres witha solid oak floor, three-pane bifold doors and covered with open board cladding. The desk by the corner window offers lovely views over the surrounding fields.

Steve Garden Office_360p from Green Studios on Vimeo. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The rise of the modern garden office

 An interesting article in the Herts Advertiser (Shedworking HQ's local newspaper) by Richard Burton talks to three shedworkers in Hertfordshire about their garden offices, photographer Chris Frazer Smith, Kate Buchanan who runs a textile art business, and reflexologist Elisabeth Grover (who has a circular shed). Here's a snippet:

An early adopter was photographer Chris Frazer Smith, 55, who had his shed built 13 years ago when he and his choreographer wife, Jane, moved out of London and settled in Ashwell in North Herts. At first, he found it hard to break the habit of commuting to his studio in Islington but five years ago he “cut the umbilical cord” by selling it in search of a better home-life balance. It also meant an end to what he recalls as the “horrific” rush-hour trips from Baldock to King’s Cross.

Well worth a read and with some nice photos.

Image courtesy Garden Affairs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Cottage with garden office for sale

This is the pleasant 3.2m x 2.2m garden office in Thames Ditton which comes with a cottage and a short walk to the river Thames. According to the estate agents Bourne (the whole thing is on for £530,000): "The current owners have thoughtfully updated the property and landscaped the garden even introducing a superb garden office. This contemporary design building is ideal for guest accommodation, home gym or office." Full particulars at the link above.
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Garden office makeover

A brief but interesting piece by Ricky from In Two Homes about revamping their garden office with the help of some Valspar paint (that's the 'after' shot above). Here's what he says:

I’m lucky enough to work from home in my garden office. It’s a great way to just leave home life behind and actually go to work, even if my commute is about 30 seconds (oh the hardship). Ever since the office was built, I’ve never been too keen on the colour of the door. It’s a different kind of wood to the rest of the cabin and therefore, looks a little out of place. I was really keen to paint over the original stain with something smart.

Click the link above to read the rest of the piece.
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Infrared heating for garden offices

It's a bit nippy out there and as one of the most common queries we get here at Shedworking is about how to keep your garden office cosy, we asked Heather Edwards from Multiheat & Energy Systems for her thoughts on the subject.

"Infrared warms people directly," she explains, "the far infrared panel heaters provide very gentle and comfortable warmth, unlike the intense near infrared orange glowing type of infrared heater which is better for outdoor applications."

Multiheat has been supplying infrared heaters for more than 10 years, and Heather says the market has changed quite a lot over that time as people are far more aware of their energy consumption and more accepting of different technologies and new ways of doing things. 

"Infrared heating is a well established technology, that has been widely used across Europe for around 40 years, it is popular because it is a more efficient way of warming people, and especially in buildings which are not so well insulated, simply because it is not reliant upon heating the air," she says. "Heating air to be lost through poorly insulated walls is just wasteful of energy. In a well insulted building the running cost of an infrared panel is very low. Panel heaters range from 300 to 850 watts which is incredibly low compared to plug in oil filled radiators, storage heaters or fan heaters which can be 1500 to 2000 watts."

So what is infrared? Here's how Heather explains it:

It is an energy we are all very familiar with, our bodies naturally absorb and emit infrared warmth. Natural infrared is the warmth we feel from the sun, infrared energy travels through air and only turns to heat upon touching a surface, so we all know when you sit in the sun even on a spring day you can feel the sun’s infrared energy on your face, this energy also warms the earth, sand on the beach and stone walls of the house. In winter there are fewer daylight hours, less time for that energy to warm surfaces, and so we become surrounded by coldness and we perceive a chillyness. So, thinking of this principle, by using infrared heating in our well insulated buildings we can maintain a good warmth in the walls and furnishings which makes us perceive a cosy feeling, even if the air might not be as warm as we might think, in uninsulated buildings we still can feel that far infrared direct warmth on our faces.

The result is that infrared warmth is not hot, stuffy,or dry, just effective. 

"The great thing about infrared is that the heater wants to be higher on the wall or even on the ceiling," adds Heather, "so we do very slim white panels, or pictures or mirrors which are heaters."

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Haynes Shed Manual - the cover

So it's all done and dusted and at the printers now. Here's what the cover for our Haynes Shed Manual will look like and we'll be posting some sample spreads nearer the date. Publication day is April 13. -------------------------------------------------------

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The Land of Rusty Gold

The Land Of Rusty Gold - Workshop/Studio from 2nd Floor roof terrace #shedoftheyear

Continuing our occasional look at some of our favourite entrants in the 2019 Shed of the Year competition, this is a remarkable 2m x 2m build over two floors by graphic designer Robin Garms made out of rusty corten steel. Click the link above for more images of its unique windows, its pyramidal ceiling, and hair-raising story of its construction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Log cabin garden office

A quick look at this 4m x 3m log cabin garden office from Waltons is a striking addition to any garden. It has a substantial overhang, is made with 28mm thick timber logs (34mm and 44mm options are also available), and finished with interlocking tongue and groove timber. Shedworkers can choose between single or double glazed windows and there is also a set of double doors. It all comes with a 10 year guarantee against rot.
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Snowy sheds

It's finally started snowing a bit so as is traditional over here on Shedworking, we'd love to share your snowy sheds so please get in touch via all the usual means. Here to kick things off is a shot of an atmospheric Arctic Cabins design from earlier in the day, owned by Craig Nickless. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Bauhaus bus 'wohnsmachine' travelling office

Here's an interesting mobile office space, a miniature bus trailer version of the Bauhaus building which is currently on tour around Germany and eventually to Kinshasa and Hong Kong to mark 100 years since the establishment of the legendary design school.

Designed by architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel, it's called the ‘Wohnmaschine’ and measures 15 sqm with huge glass walls, an exhibition space and reading room. The bus is part of the Spinning Triangles project organised by Savvy Contemporary. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Revolving summerhouse as rotating medical centre

A marvellous glass plate negative of a revolving summerhouse being used to house a sick soldier sent in by Matt Plummer of The Fourpenny Workshop. As many of you know, these kinds of rotating summerhouses were used widely in the UK a century ago and were based on Alpine chalets in Swiss tuberculosis sanitoriums - for more on the medical side to garden offices, do have a look at What Tuberculosis did for Modernism: The Influence of a Curative Environment on Modernist Design and Architecture, an excellent article by Margaret Campbell which you can read here.

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Amazing Spaces writing den

If you missed it last week, George Clarke's Channel 4 show Amazing Spaces is back on the small screen. The first episode feature former taxi driver  Caroline who is building a writing den in her garden with the help of her grandchildren. Much of the materials are recycled (largely concrete and timber) and her whole budget is £800 - the design is essentially dependent on what she can pick up for nothing (or next to) from the local dump or skips. You can watch the programme on catchup here (though it's a bit annoying with all the adverts).

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Shed shelter in the Alps

A pefect place for some restful prefabricated shedworking by Roberto Dini and Stefano Girodo who call this Bivouac Luca Pasqualetti, 3,290m up a steep hillside. More fantastic and vertigo-inducing images at the link. ------------------------------------

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Feather-edge cladding

A simple and effective garden building from Warwick Buildings which has feather-edge cladding and aluminium-framed sliding double doors with blinds inside the double glazing (between-glass blinds). -------------------------------------------------------

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Ridge & Furrow workshop

Cotswolds-based designers Ridge & Furrow (who we featured yesterday) are shedworkers themselves and they have an excellent step by step photo guide to how they built their own workshop in their front yard, above. Here's what they say about it: 

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"This may be an outbuilding but there's no reason practical spaces can't be beautiful. The interiors are made from reclaimed materials. The walls are lime rendered and the floor is made up of vintage quarry tiles and oak floorboards. The whole stone and timber structure is warmed by underfloor heating and awash with natural light from glass doors and a large skylight."

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The rise of gardens in the office

An interesting article in the New York Times asks (and then answers) The Next Frontier in Office Space? The Outdoors. Journalist Jane Margolies argues that outdoor work areas are the logical next step in the evolution of flexible offices and writes:

Employers with suburban campuses have long turned swaths of blank lawn into furnished outdoor areas where workers can meet with colleagues, work alone or simply take a break from their computer screens. Now, developers and owners of urban office buildings are adding terraces and transforming once-barren rooftops into parklike settings, where workers can plant vegetables, unfurl yoga mats or swing in a hammock.

Among the examples she gives is CookFox Architects (who themselves grow kale and keep an apiary on their own office terraces) who have recently completed an office building which has nearly 17,000 square feet of terraces featuring native grasses and trees. Well worth a read.

Pictured is the roof garden on the Holland Mills Mori Tower in Tokyo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Garden office translation shed

A very atmospheric garden office by Ridge and Furrow for literary translator Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp which also doubles as a bike shed. Originally it was a concrete bunker with an asbestos roof so they've done some extremely good work. Features included reclaimed double garage doors, sheepswool insulation, and lime-rendered/limewashed walls. Windows and floor are reclaimed oak and there is a lovely verandah with gutters connected to water butts. There are also two skylights. We'll bring you another Ridge and Furrow build tomorrow.

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Wooden garden office built around brick shed

A very clever build by Rotterdam-based architects Open Kaart - it's a painting studio built of wood wrapped around an existing brick shed and used by the clients as a painting studio with storage space and an upper floor. More images at the link above and an interview with its creator at dezeen. ------------------------------------------

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