The Gate House | Stefano Marinaz

The Gatehouse is a family home in Buckinghamshire set among the pines, ferns and rhododendrons of a stretch of pristine woodland. Renovations to the house have been made by Studio Architettura in a project that also incorporates a new wing clad in shou-sugi-ban, burnt sugi boards. This traditional Japanese cladding technique uses carbonised cedar boards that are resistant to rot and fire and have a silver sheen.

The new garden  consists of a courtyard planted from a Japanese palette inside a frame of pleached crab apple trees. A more naturalistic setting is created around the house where a wildflower meadow and a native hedgerow  blur the boundaries between the domestic garden and the woodland around it.