Garden room near a protected tree

This extension, in Emersons Green, was designed to create a family garden room, adjoining the existing kitchen, and adjacent to the garage. The house itself is only a few years old, and was built near some protected trees. TPOs (tree protection orders) are applied to notable or historic trees, or where a tree or group of trees helps create or maintain the character of an area. Removing trees, doing work to trees, or building within the protection zone of a TPO means seeking additional consents from the council, and can be prohibitive.

Before- the TPO’d trees can be seen on the right hand side

The proposed location of this extension fell within the tree protection area of a TPO, and so the involvement of an Arboriculturalist was required. Our initial bid for planning permission was rejected, but a second attempt was successful. Key to this success was the involvement of the Arboriculturalist, a structural engineer and ACHD, to come up with, and negotiate a way of constructing the foundations of the extension so as to create minimal disturbance to the root system of the tree. The careful design involved building a ring beam from which to build the extension, avoiding the standard method of a deeper trench foundation. Investigations on site confirmed that this could be done without disturbing ground which had not been previously dug. South Glos planning approved the scheme, and building work commenced soon after!

The garden room is a gabled ended addition, fitting neatly to the existing garage roof. With large french doors, narrow slot feature windows in the side return give great views of the large garden, and along with rooflights, the space is light filled. Its proximity to the kitchen and dining area makes it the perfect play space, or area to relax.