“If we want to enjoy nature, we will take our car and drive to a forest”.
This motto was symptomatical for the program of demands our cliënts defined for their garden. They refused to treat their backyard as a tiny piece of nature, but rather as the ideal opportunity to enjoy sun and rain in their own secluded world. The only plant a bamboo bush which will grow approximately three meters high, blocking the view from the neighboring houses.
Thus the KO basalt garden has been designed as the extension of the living room; a living room convertible. The black granite floortiling of the interiour livingroom is prolonged in rough basalt stone, each stone being 5 cm wide and variable in length. The white walls inside are reflected in the milky white, translucent polycarbonate garden fences. To stress the fact that the bamboo is merely a means to get higher than the allowed 2 meters of a fence, it too has been fenced in by polycarbonate.
The KO black garden is dominated through four independent elements; the bamboo, a piece of art by Ad Haring representing the body of on of the clients, a basalt table and an independent serre. The last item, a glass box on wheels has the measurements of a large bed. On the long side this box is covered with polycarbonate, forming ttranslucent doors. The short sides of the box as well as the roof are entirely made of structural glazing. Protected by the translucent doors one can lie down looking to the rain coming down froom the sky. In summer, when the sun is out, the doors are kept wide open turning the serre into a lounge box.
A special
couch has been designed to fit in this garden. It had to serve three different
goals; at night it had to be a bed, during daytime a sofa or a sun bed,
while keeping open the opportunity to sit straight at a small table. These
functions had to be met without creating the need for a large storage.
Therefore the couch is modular. Two modules have feet and can serve as
a stool or chair, while the middle module can be turned around into a
little table. Turning the cushion of this middle element creates a perfectly
ergonomical sofa.
photos: Ximena