Harbour View Garden

The brief for this project in the coastal Auckland suburb of Rangimatarau was to modernise a family home without the need for expensive architectural renovations with a key part of the design the addition of a black steel pergola spanning the length of the front façade. Over time climbers trained up will grow into a canopy of lush green; with the striking frame providing architectural impact and a welcoming entrance.

The design also proposed breaking the existing outdoor space into a number of garden rooms, to provide a variety of outdoor living solutions for this growing family. Intimate courtyard spaces are created through the use of smaller areas of hardscaping with green seams of ground covers for softening.

Reducing paving helped to provide depth of garden as well as cosy corners to sit in. In-built seating makes the most of the various garden rooms, each of which serve different functions and add to the overall flow of the area.

Planting brings texture, brightness and dappled light to the garden, in turn adding softness to the exterior of the home. Bright lime greens and pops of white such as Asplenium bulbiferum and Anemone x hybrida are fresh and cool, with Japanese maples for seasonal colour, soft light and shadow play. The garden is ever-changing with year round with interest, such as apple blossom in Spring, Hydrangeas in Summer, maples in Autumn and Hellebores in Winter.