Designing with dirt

We are having to move pretty quickly with our East Grinstead project (see projects section) as the diggers are in and we have not got a design yet! I spent the day with the client trying to formulate a plan – it’s generally a good idea to get to know a site by spending time in the elements and understanding the site conditions.

There is a significant change in level that needs to be tackled, however my concern is that if the soil is excavated, in order to open up the view, we will also leave the main seating areas unprotected from cold winds that seem to affect this particular location.

The rough plan has always been to build walls using gabions (rock cages) filled with local sandstone. The orientation has yet to be decided and in order to get a feel for what works I decided that a quick model was in order. The long timber represented the house and the twigs are walls.

As basic as it is was, everyone understood and we have now got a plan.
In the end, we all agreed that the middle image with a more abstract line of strike was best as it was more dynamic, followed the contours and directed the eye towards the view beyond.