High Weald farm, Kent

Located in Kent’s High Weald AONB, we were asked by the client and architects Waldo Works to masterplan this beautifully-located farm site. The architects were relocating and redesigning the exiting derelict farmhouse into a house more typically in keeping with the typology of Kent farmsteads, and we were asked to work alongside them to design the masterplan for the agricultural and garden cartilages, and their relationship with the new built structures.

The farm is intended to operates as a productive small-holding as well private residence, and provides luxury camping facilities in the summer months, and we wanted to ensure that these elements all enjoyed a more sympathetic relationship with the surrounding landscape, with carefully considered spaces disseminating out into it.

Aesthetic and usage requirements from the client focused very much on entertaining, cooking and socialising, and so we have created a series of terraces to make the most of different time of the day. An old open sided agricultural barn is make into a covered dining space. A pool garden is surrounded by grasses, herbs and aromatics. A garden courtyard, edged with knapped flint and brick walls, is planted with exotic meadow and smoky Cotinus shrubs. There are also a range of productive growing, storage, screening, wind protection and managed livestock areas.

The long view down the north of the valley is celebrated as is the ‘big sky’ feel of this particular location. A land art installation – the Modern Dew Ponds – is located within the expansive bowl landscape to the north of the house, reflecting the light in vast discs of water. These focus the eye on the fleeting, ephemeral qualities of the sky whilst also acknowledging the historical ways of capturing water within the landscape.