Countryside office, Cheshire

This office barn conversion is set within beautiful Cheshire countryside. The existing site included fields north and south of the barn, mature trees and a pond with Great Crested Newts. As well as protecting and strengthening the countryside setting and enhancing the site’s wildlife value, the landscape design provided an entrance forecourt, gardens and land remodelling to enable underground parking. An elegant entrance forecourt connects to gardens via a gabion wall. The gardens are nestled between the office and the pond, providing outside social spaces. Mown paths in the meadows beyond encourage workers and visitors to explore and enjoy the setting. The scheme included planting new native hedgerows, native tree planting and an orchard. Long term management plans were created to ensure existing hedgerows thrived and fields became species-rich grassland. The existing pond and its environs were sensitively restored to sustain and protect the long term habitat for the newts.

The planning application, which included landscape design and a landscape and visual impact assessment, was approved with conditions in 2017.