The Floating Forest
About This Project
An ongoing project for a visionary client, to sensitively re-imagine a ‘lost’ historic 40 acre woodland water garden for the future: retaining all of its natural romance and value for nature.
This beautiful site once formed the pleasure grounds of a Victorian country house shooting lodge. In the 1960’s, house and gardens were sold separately, and the landscape fell into disrepair. The ornamental lakes and cascades had filled up with silt, whilst the remnants of rockeries, specimen rhododendrons from the 1860’s and Giant Sequoia were hidden amongst a sea of brambles, over grown young trees, and fallen branches from ash die-back.
In recent years, permission was granted to build an architecturally significant new copper clad eco-house at the opposite end of the site from the original hall. Our brief was to re-orient the landscape so that it flowed from the new house, creating a place of immersive sensory beauty, whilst restoring heritage elements, and caring for the eco-systems of the woodland.
Inspired by gardens such as Ninfa, Bodnant, the client’s taste in art and music, and the desire to tread lightly on the landscape (creating a habitat for man and nature) we have called the scheme ‘The Floating Forest’.
The design features a new lake, remodelling of existing lakes, landscape structures on land, water and in the canopy and a planting scheme throughout.