Artist’s studio in Devon

This oak painting studio - built mainly off-site and then reassembled - was designed for Lady Anne Field by Hoare, Ridge & Morris to sit in the Capability Brown-designed gardens of her home in Devon. According to the architects: "Its quiet palette of materials helps it to merge with its wooded backdrop in longer views, while its recessed façade allows the use of full glazing without glare in the wider landscape... Conceived as a contemporary folly or temple within the wider landscape, it sits somewhere between being a large piece of fine furniture and a garden building."

Those interested in building regs and permission will be pleased to hear that the design process involved extensive negotiation with English Heritage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Garden office art

We've long known that sheds and art go well together,  and that research has shown that shedworking is healthy (indeed simply looking at plants reduces work stress and makes you feel less isolated). So we were interested to read Patrick McCrae from Artiq in onoffice magazine on the impact art can have too - he says research indicates a direct correlation between art and productivity and the inclusion of an art collection in a workplace leads to a quantifiable increase in productivity.

If you have art on the walls of your garden office, please email us photos of them and we'll show the world in a future post. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Rock the Shack

Subtitled 'The Architecture of Cabins, Cocoons and Hide-Outs' this book from Gestalten will appeal to shedworkers, featuring cabins and huts as well as builds which are more like weekend holiday homes.

More from the publisher:

Rock the Shack takes us to the places we long for. For the first time in the history of humankind, more people live in cities than in the country. Yet, at the same time, more and more city dwellers are yearning for rural farms, mountain cabins, or seaside homes. These kinds of refuges offer modern men and women a promise of what urban centers usually cannot provide: quiet, relaxation, being out of reach, getting back to basics, feeling human again... The book features a compelling range of sparingly to intricately furnished cabins, cottages, second homes, tree houses, transformations, shelters, and cocoons. The look of the included structures from the outside is just as important as the view from inside. What these diverse projects have in common is an exceptional spirit that melds the uniqueness of a geographic location with the individual character of the building’s owner and architect.

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

Upcycled garden office

The #garden #office is nearly there. #shed #upcycled#building #space #design #freelance pic.twitter.com/XRMpFHfshr

— Andy-Design Dude (@cadsandwich) June 12, 2016

Ceramic garden office

Ceramic specialist Lou Rota does a lot of her work from her garden office in London, designed and built by London Garden Studios. The Telegraph has a good piece about her upcycled home.

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

A Woman's Huts and Hideaways

Subtitled 'More than 40 She Sheds and other Retreats', Gill Heriz's new book will be a must for female shedworkers. Suffolk-based writer and artist Gill works in a studio built from old flint. Here's the publishers' description:

An inspirational collection of stunning small spaces. Each place has its own story, a reason for being, whether it’s somewhere to escape, to create, to work, or just a place to “be”. By the Waterside, Ivy has built a mud hut near the River Willamett in Portland, Oregon—a place to “inspire and educate and share with her community.” In the Countryside Monica’s Cabin on the Hill is a writing retreat and provides a place for women who need time away from busy lives. A purpose-built shed in an Urban garden serves as studio for illustrator and artist, Martha. Hidden away, in an enchanting wilderness in Suffolk, UK, is Janet and Sue’s Secret Garden. Here, there are three sheds: an old summerhouse full of light; a hide nestled in the bushes for watching the local wildlife; and a renovated wagon used as a base for recording their wildlife observations. From yurts to Airstreams, beach huts to bothies, the huts and hideaways have one thing in common—they are all inspirational spaces created by women, for women.

There's a really good article about women and sheds by Gill at Living North. Here's a snippet:

Traditionally, women have taken time for moments of creativity within their demanding everyday lives wherever they could. They have always used small domestic spaces, and that sometimes included sheds, for their own practical and creative needs. These humble or not so humble sheds have, undoubtedly, been the places for inspiration, for the creation of novels, paintings, and the making of gardens. Going to the shed is both a physical removal of ourselves to 'another place', and a retreat to a space where our emotional needs are met and we can be ourselves. Our sheds are often the one place we can call our own and where we can do what we like!

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

George Bernard Shaw in his writing hut

See  our many posts about Shaw and his writing hut here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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