French composer's garden office

This is the Forest House by French architects JCPCDR who converted an old shed for a composer living in rural France into a working garden office featuring a woodburning stove, outdoor shower, and eco-toilet, as well as a flat rooftop which is accessible from the ground and can be walked upon. The build had a strong ecological angle with the glass and steel upcycled from a derelict factory, and timber from a local sawmill. Here's what they say about it:

This space, though small in size, was conceived to give a sense of quiet, and intimacy with the surrounding nature. Whether you are standing, sitting or even laying down on the convertible sofa, canopies are designed to frame various perspectives on the vegetable garden, the beautiful 1940's house, the centennial oak... and even the stars at night. Light flows from one side of the house to the other, and the ambiance transforms throughout the day and the seasons.

More photos at the link above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Paul Kingsnorth: shedworker

Writer and founder of the Wyrd School, Paul Kingsnorth (The Wake, Beast) is also a shedworker, based on a smallholding in Galway. In an interview with Erica Wagner for the New Statesman, he tells her about Beast that "he could only have written it looking out over the field outside his writing shed". In fact, he built it himself. Here's how Wagner describes it:

"We’re sitting in the Irish sunshine in front of a comfortable wooden hut a moment’s walk away from the house. It’s his writing place, and it’s where I spent the night, the darkness and quiet providing the kind of sleep that I’d hardly recalled existed. Round the walls inside, Kingsnorth has tacked up a reproduction of the Bayeux Tapestry, the story of William the Bastard’s conquest. There is no wifi here and no phone signal, either."

Here's how he describes his shedworking writing routine (pictured above, his hut in the snow):

Like many writers I'm a fairly reclusive, introspective person. I need the stars, the wind and the silence to produce my words. I live on a smallholding in Ireland with my wife, where we grow our own food and fuel, make our own bread and school our own children. I'm not all over social media, I don't blog and I don't tweet pictures of my breakfast to the world. I sit in the writing hut you can see at the top of this page, light the fire, eat chocolate bars, listen to the song thrushes, watch the young birches grow, and see what arises. 

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The Story Garden office

The British Library in collaboration with eco-educational charity Global Generation will open a temporary community garden on the land to the north of the British Library building in May in response to the local community’s wishes for more green space. Local people and British Library staff will start planting the garden next month.

The British Library [full disclosure, they publish several of my books] and developers Stanhope say the one acre site will be somewhere for people to come and plant and cook together. It will include a kitchen and office in converted containers as well as a straw bale rounhouse, pictured above. Other features are an orchard and a MAKE space in partnership with UAL Central St Martins and Somers Town Community Association which aims to deliver specific projects for the local community of Somers Town.
 The Story Garden forms part of the British Library’s plans to develop the 2.8 acre site to the north of the St Pancras building to include space for exhibitions, business and learning facilities.

Slaney Devlin of the Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum said: “The Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum is aware of the importance of green and open spaces in improving the health and wellbeing of those living, studying and working in Somers Town.  We hope that the planned community garden will be a new green resource in the area and will catalyse a growth in planting and gardening in the wider community."

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Building a garden office: part 3 (video)

Here's the latest from web designer and developer Jack McConnell's video series on how to build a garden office (you can see earlier episodes here). Here's what he says about it:

In this video, I set out my foundations and mortared them to my hardcore pad with the help of my Dad (thanks, Dad!). Nothing too technical or informative but a good, quick view of the materials and technique I used to install them.

The next episode will deal with building the floor.

Roof timber has arrived between rain showers. Really hoping to get the walls square and roof mostly assembled this weekend.

— Jack McConnell (@jackmcconnell) February 7, 2019

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Garden office with rustic effect cladding

We talked last week about different colours for garden office exteriors, such as Living Coral or black. Here's an interesting idea from Smart Spaces from their recent garden office build in Sheffield who have used a rustic effect to their cladding to help it blend into the location. It comes with dark framed windows and doors. Thumbs up from the Shedworking staff. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Kettal Pavilions

If you're considering some light summertime shedworking verging on the pergolaworking, then Barcelona-based Kettal Pavilions (who also have a base in Florida) have some intriguing options. Top is their Cottage model and above is their Pavilion H design, although there are other models too. They are built largely out of aluminium and Canadian cedar, with fabric ceilings and walls.

The designs also work for inside shedworking. Below is an example of their Office Pavilion range which are made up of movable walls and targeted at open-plan office spaces.

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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.

Free tickets for Build It Live South East

The fine folk at Arctic Cabins have been in touch to remind readers of Shedworking that Build It Live South East will take place on February 9 and 10 at the Kent Event Centre. They will have their Arctic Cabins 10m² BBQ cabin on display and can talk you through all your queries. Also, you can get two free tickets worth £24 at the Build It Live site, with code: PEXH9563 ------------------------------------------

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