Retreat space + craft and design studios by Simon Woodhall

Here are some lovely shedworking spaces with a heavy emphasis on green and recycled materials designed and built by Ashburton-based Simon Woodhall and his team. Above and below is a secluded meditation and retreat looking across the Dart valley. It's built with cob, stone and oak taken from the landscape it's in, with reclaimed timber from Devonport docks. Here's what Simon says about it:

The plan was conceived as a series of spiralling terrace levels, protected from the north by a massive, curved earth wall, which stores heat from the glazed south-west elevation. Two roofs meet over the room, with the glazed connection giving views to Dartmoor from an upper level.

Above is a craft studio in Dartmoor with a wonderful roof structure. The larch used for cladding was felled on site and floor beams were reclaimed from a local tile-works.Finally, a writer's room and design studio in Ashburton with a cantilevered roof held in place by ties to the ground. Among many marvellous features, when seen from the house above, the green sedum roof looks like a lawn. Materials for the project were taken from pre-existing garden sheds, and windows came from council refurbishment works.

Lots more details and photos about these and other projects here. Many thanks to Annie Leymarie for the alert

Judith Morgan's Shed Sessions

Here's another top shedworking trend for 2010: using your garden office as a positive selling tool for your business. Even proud shedworkers are sometimes a little careful about telling clients exactly where they work. Not Judith Morgan, who describes herself as a "wealth coach, prosperity mentor, business consultant, accountant and property investor" - one of her new offerings for 2010 are her Shed Sessions in the brand new garden office she moved into late last year (pictured above). These are one-to-one coaching sessions which take place specifically in her garden office where she offers to help "a very small number of clients who want really dramatic financial results in their businesses, property or wealth creation goals". A Shed Session day runs from 10am to 4pm and includes lunch on Judith who offers the first one on a 100% guarantee basis so that if you don’t find it useful, she'll refund your money.

MJW Architects: summerhouse garden office

This rather lovely summerhouse in Coleford, Somerset, was designed by MJW Architects to replace an unhabitable garden shed and be used for both living and working. It's well insulated and comes with underfloor heating, office space (naturally), shower room, WC and sink. Here's what they say about it:

"The garden site is positioned on a prominent hillside location and surrounded by a variety of traditional architecture. Whilst the summerhouse was designed to act as a subtle contemporary contrast in time it will blend into the hillside through the use of natural and sustainable materials such as timber cladding and a sedum grass roof."

Choosing a shed - Expandakabin

While timber garden offices dominate the shedworking market, there are alternatives. Expandakabin from Extraspace is made from fully galvanised steel with a guttered roof, double glazed u-PVC window, insulated panels, and optional full length panel windows. It's an easily portable, flatpacked garden office unit which comes in a range of sizes (coming soon the new EK2 2.3m x 2.2m model which reinforces what we said last year about a growing interest in smaller spaces) and is nicely modular so you can easily add (or indeed take away) sections to adjust the size of your garden office.No specialist tools are needed to assemble the kit and a spokesman for Extraspace told Shedworking that it can be ready for use in just an hour and a half. A nice page of technical details here and prices here.

The loggiest garden office cabin ever

There are log cabins and there are log cabins. And then there's Piet Hein Eek's remarkable log cabin garden office music studio in The Netherlands for music entertainer Hans Liberg. Lots of splendid photos at Thomas Mayer's site which I thoroughly encourage you to look at.Via muuuz. Thanks to urban bike pour le alert.

Yet even more snowy garden offices

I suspect this will be the last installment of snowy shedworking situations but if we haven't featured you yet, please do send your photos in. First in line is Graham Burnett's garden office (pictured above - for more on the build which we followed on Shedworking, click here). Below is Garden Haze's 'Modern Igloo'.Here is Josie from Fraser & Parsley's garden office.And finally, Judith Morgan's brand new garden office.
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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Magnetfeld: shedlike microarchitecture

Magnetfeld by Aiko Telgen is one of a series of shedlike atmospheres put together by students from the Kassel School of Art and Design in Frankfurt under the heading 'The Microarchitecture Lounge'. They're all worth a browse: Magnetfeld consists of two open rubble containers next to each other to produce a room, furnished withi table, windows, chairs and 'ventilation area'. The whole thing is 'quilted' with small magnets and it's designed for sitting, lounging and lying. And shedworking.
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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.