Mökki: zero wastage shedworking?

Based in Totnes, Mökki studios design, build and install garden offices in the southwest of the UK in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset. They are designed by James Risebero, a practicing architect at Gillespie Yunnie in Dartington who says they can provide "a fully installed, modern, insulated garden office/studio at a fraction of the cost of a bespoke garden building". Here's their explanation:

Most bespoke garden buildings cost between 10 and £20K. Even "off the peg" models tend to cost over £1000 per square metre and often that doesn't include foundations. Mökki studios cost between £4,800 and £7,300 fully installed. That's approximately £800 per square metre.
The Mökki system uses standard building components in a highly efficient manner resulting in speedy manufacture and minimal or zero wastage. This is the amount of waste plywood left over after the manufacture of one of our buildings: 0

They don’t describe their system as ‘bespoke’, but it is flexible as panels can be combined in various ways.


Most of their components are either made or supplied by Devon-based companies. They use mainly European FSC wood and their Siberian Larch cladding is sourced from New World Timber in Exeter (the interior is clad in attractive birch-faced plywood). Insulation is 100mm Knauf Earthwool.
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Mod105

Kent-based Mod105 (the website is undergoing a bit of a revamp at the moment so do check back) has some intriguing garden office designs, in particular their 'modular system', pictured below, which they say requires no external fixing, is strong and robust, and uses aluminium framing, phenol coated plywood timber and acrylic for quick assembly and long life.

Also take a look at their clever shedinafence on the site... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Eco Hubb

The new timber garden pods from Cornwall-based Eco Hubb boast a range of eco-friendly options as well as being built from sustainable and recycled products - these include solar panels, green insulation (sheep's wool, glass bottles or hemp) and low energy lighting.

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Sunday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

MorphPOD

Shropshire-based MorphPODs offer two timber garden office designs for shedworkers. There's the the MorphPOD 2.2 (2.2 metres wide, x 3.3m long internal) which is largely built in their workshop and delivered by lorry or trailer, with optional bolt-on wheels so it can be moved around on site. And then there's the MorphPOD 3.4 (which is unsurprisingly 3.4m x 3.3m) which is constructed on site. No foundations are needed. Optional extras include veranda, furniture and WC/shower room. -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dunster House, the leading UK company for Log Cabins and Garden Offices sponsors Friday posts

Cube (screencast)

You can find more details at the Cube website.
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Customise | Configure | Extend | Relocate

Wondershed

Quite a different look for a garden office, Wondershed is new to the market and ticks all the boxes (insulated floor/walls/roof, adaptable doors, underfloor heating, etc) but it's their exterior that's unusual. Here's what they say: "Our unique cladding system is based on a textured cement particleboard, with a 20-year guarantee and paint finish to taste." It's all on a steel frame base, seated on concealed compacted pads. Well worth a browse.
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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Hermit's House

We featured Hermit's House very briefly about 18 months ago when it seemed to be just a one-off design, but now Mark van der Net and Daniël Venneman of The Cloud Collective have redeveloped the design and made it widely available. They're particularly keen on the motto of 'Life unplugged' which means the design can be largely off-grid and self-sufficient - it comes with integrated solar energy as well as an optional wooden stove. And if you're handy, then there is a DIY option.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Hudson Garden Rooms: pods

Hudson Garden Rooms has a rather eclectic range of garden office designs, but our eyes have been drawn in particular to their 'pod' lines. We're not the only ones - Microsoft used four of them recently to entertain the media during a presentation in Cologne of their new Xbox products (pictured left). In the UK, an office complex in Barking has also used them as outdoor interview rooms (pictured below). Hudson are definitely on a roll at the moment, as they have been awarded a London 2012 Olympic contract.

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Atelier garden studios which are sustainable, stylish, flexible, functional and future proofed

The Beach Hut Caravan Company

Based in Salcombe, The Beach Hut Caravan Company aims to bring "a little 'beach hut' style and love of the sea and all things nautical, incorporated into a beautifully restored vintage caravan". They specifically describe their caravans as ideal for mobile offices or as a studio for artists or writers. They fully service, restore and re-spray these lovely old models in nautical colours and then convert the interior into a 'beach hut styled living space' which sleeps 2-4. Features include electrics, recycled pine flooring, new foam seating and upholstery, curtains and freshly painted white washed walls. As well as cooking facilities and being towable, naturally each one comes with new deck chairs.
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Atelier garden studios which are sustainable, stylish, flexible, functional and future proofed

Shipshape Camping Huts

Inspired by the Lindisfarne fishing huts and despite their title, Harrogate-based Shipshape do specifically say that their shedlike atmospheres are ideal for use as garden offices. There are three main models plus a bespoke service - features of the SIPs-built huts include tanalised feather edge board cladding throughout, double doors with deadbolt lock, pad foundations, carpeted floor and coat hooks.

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Atelier garden studios which are sustainable, stylish, flexible, functional and future proofed

Glampod (video)

The elliptical Glampod from Gaukroger and Partners is an interesting shedlike environment, built of timber and apparently falling within the guidelines of 'caravan' for planning permission purposes making siting it that much easier. It stands on Douglas Fir stilts and measures 7m x 3.8m - options include kitchens and balconies as it is intended for microliving and glamping as much as shedworking. There's lots more detail in this excellent video:


Glam Pod - Sunday Times from Sandi l Thompson on Vimeo.

The company produces a series of similar buildings including designs specifically targeting the garden office market. Click here for brief details of their 6.5m x 4.5m model and latest concepts such as the Kithaus Pod below.

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Riverdale Stone: stone shedworking

Bedfordshire-based Riverdale Stone specialise in a wide range of both contempory and traditional stonework which includes garden offices, claiming that not only do their shedlike atmospheres need no exterior maintenance, they actually improve with age. Options include lavatory, shower, kitchen area and mezzanine sleeping area. All stone is sourced from within the UK and if you move house they even offer a stone-by-stone dismantling and rebuilding service. More information on the spec here including their special foundation system and freestanding dry stone walls.

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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Elm Tree & Partners

Elm Tree & Partners is a joinery company in West Oxfordshire which also offers a garden office design made of oak with a set of oak bifold doors to the front and Celotex insulation in the ceiling, floor and walls.
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Fridays posts are sponsored by Swift Foundations. We design bespoke, eco friendly, foundation solutions. Our Plinths are LABC system approved and manufactured to British Standard BS8110 by a ISO 9000 company. www.swiftfoundations.co.uk for details.

Euan Gray: The Bothy

Those of you who missed out on the Ideal Home Show in Scotland this year missed a treat, Euan Gray's Bothy. "The idea behind The Bothy project is to create a kit-build, semi-permanent structure that can be fitted into gardens, existing ruins, foundations, forests, forgotten places," he says, "the kind seen frequently throughout Scotland as a result of highland clearances, declining rural populations and the changing use of the landscape. This is a small attempt to reconnect with those places and keep the memories alive."

The Bothy was built from locally sourced, low impact and readily available materials, and is fully recyclable. It features a sleeping area/futon, storage unit, fold-out picnic table, seating area and fold-away wood burning stove, in a 2.3m x 3.2m shell. And do have a browse around the rest of the projects on his web site which features more detail about the Bothy project as well as a chimpanzee house.
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Atelier garden studios which are sustainable, stylish, flexible, functional and future proofed

Wholewoods Natural Buildings

If you want a garden office based on an ancient English Cruck Frame model, Ethiopian Tukul, Earth Lodge or Round House, then Wholewoods Natural Buildings could be right up your garden path. Here's what they say about their byre design, pictured above:

This is a traditional timber frame building that can be extended to any number of bays. It is held together with wooden pegs and cut from large British oaks. The Summerhouse version is a turf roofed building with doors and windows and whether boarded or wattle and daub walls. There can be a built-in staircase so you can access the roof for sun bathing or growing veg. I hope to see someone keeping chickens on top one day! It truly is a joy to extend your garden and have more indoor space simultaneously.

They also run courses and are keen to get people involved in the building process, including as part of teambuilding events.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Craftedspace

Craftedspace is a collective of designers who create handmade buildings. Among their intriguing designs is the traditional green oak garden room with a view to the sea pictured above for Kay and Jeff Zitron in Wales: the goal was to create a framework over two levels that would be quickly overgrown with tunnels and bowers of wisteria and clematis. There is also a large deck area specifically built for use as an outdoor office (and from which the sand dunes can be seen).

We also rather like Caradoc's Hideout, pictured below, a space for everyday climbing and playing as well as for local legend storytelling.

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

3rdSpace

Look out early next year for the launch of a new garden office specialist, 3rdSpace. Owner Ben Jardine has been in touch to let us have a basic 3D view of their first design, based on a modular post & beam system (Douglas fir) to allow various sizes and configurations based on one kit-of-parts. Wall panels will be doubleglazed or insulated to begin with, but they are going to develop various options so customers can personalise their own buildings. The system also means shedworkers can reconfigure, extend or dismantle and relocate easily. No website as yet but you can follow them on Twitter at @SawhorseLtd.
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Thatched garden office

The Prima Grand Four from Lugarde, a 4m hexagonal building in 44mm log walls local thatching available from Howe Fencing & Sectional Buildings.

Little Redonda

Little Redonda is the lovely garden office belonging to Edinburgh-based Secret Gardens, a garden design and bespoke garden buildings business run by Carolyn Grohmann. Carolyn has an excellent page on the site detailing the project from first thoughts to final construction. Here's a snippet:

Our garden studio project started out as an effort to solve an increasingly common domestic problem: the explosive combination of two young children, a dog and a husband and wife who both work from home. Noise levels within our home are unlikely to drop in the next ten to fifteen years and 'moving into the garden shed', as my husband still puts it, began to look increasingly like the most appealing solution. However, the project slowly evolved into something much more interesting and inspiring than the simple upgrading of a shed.

It's certainly got good ecofriendly credentials. The timber is all FSC certified with larch cladding and oak decking, while the windows and doors were made locally. The floor is reclaimed from a Glasgow college. Insulation is sheep's wool and there is a green sedum roof (pictured above in full bloom).


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Thursday posts are sponsored by Atelier garden studios which are sustainable, stylish, flexible, functional and future proofed