Swift Unlimited is happy to let designs evolve
Published: 2 February 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes 23 seconds
When researching your options, you'll find that some companies aim to shorten the period from initial contact to placing an order as much as possible, asking you to choose a garden room size and set of features from a standard palette. Bespoke design specialists like Swift Unlimited, however, take a different approach. They are eager to take your initial ideas for your new room and evolve the design until you are 100% satisfied with the size, layout, features, and style.
This approach is showcased in a multipurpose garden office project in the Peak District. The customers first approached Swift Unlimited in the summer with a vision for a dual-roomed building that would house a home office, training area, and bike workshop. Following a detailed consultation, the Swift team drew up designs for the building.
These initial designs inspired the clients to consider connecting the garden room to a proposed garage and workshop, creating an L-shaped footprint. The Swift Unlimited team then created a 3D model, allowing the customer to visualise this concept.
Following further discussions, the design evolved once again into a 4m x 3.5m rectangular building, which is what Swift’s clients ultimately proceeded with. This graphic illustrates the design evolution process that Swift Unlimited undertook.
The final design is a multipurpose office space with a kitchenette for making drinks and snacks. The glazing arrangement frames views of the garden and countryside beyond. The front elevation is enhanced by a covered veranda area, incorporating a chunky sunscreen detail.
Overcoming Site Challenges
The chosen site for the garden office, in the corner of the client's garden, sits next to steeply sloping ground overlooking the River Noe. To ensure the site's suitability for a ground screw foundation system, Swift Unlimited organised pull testing.
Images of the ground screws being installed show how substantial these screw piles are. The length and diameter of these screws, chosen for the job after calculations for the building and the site pull tests were completed, mark a significant upgrade from the small DIY ground screws some companies offer as their standard foundation option.
Swift Unlimited, an experienced industry name, has been designing and building bespoke garden rooms and annexes of all sizes for nearly two decades. They are adept at identifying and overcoming site challenges to bring a client's garden room vision to reality.
Contemporary Style Garden Office
The garden office boasts a contemporary aesthetic, thanks to the mix of high-specification materials chosen. Swift Unlimited utilises Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for the core structure of their garden rooms, creating a robust, highly insulated building envelope.
With the SIPs core structure, Swift Unlimited then adds several material layers to the inside and outside of the structure. The exterior is finished with Western Red Cedar cladding, a long-lasting, durable softwood with a natural resistance to rot and fungal attack, known for its lovely natural colouring of reddish-brown shades.
The Cedar cladding has been paired with Anthracite Grey Aluminium doors, windows, and trims, a popular choice in contemporary garden room design.
The front elevation is recessed, with a covered decked veranda forming a welcoming porch area. The roof canopy features exterior grade Collingwood dimmable LED lighting recessed into the underside. A stylish addition to this area is the Anthracite Grey sunscreen on the left-hand side, featuring thicker slats than typically seen, giving the feature a chunky profile.
Inside, the room has the feel of a newly built house with a crisp, plastered, and decorated finish, combined with wooden flooring. Interior dimmable Collingwood LED lights have been recessed into the ceiling. The electrical specification also includes a hardwired internet connection and an air conditioning system, allowing the owners to set their preferred working temperature all year round.
A well-equipped kitchenette has been fitted in the corner of the office, allowing the owners to make drinks and snacks without having to return to the main house. As part of their turnkey service, Swift Unlimited handles the connections to the mains services for kitchens and bathrooms incorporated into their buildings.
Customer Review
After speaking to a number of different companies, I chose Swift. I found them approachable, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and really cared about the detail. They took the time to work out the best use of the space we had and whether we could build what I wanted given the terrain. I found all of the team responsive and really, really friendly.
Stuart and the build team were extremely professional and tidy. They came with a good sense of humour, which was needed given that they put up the room in the middle of a snowstorm!
Post-construction has been brilliant as well. As with all new buildings, there are snags, and these have been repaired within a couple of days of being reported.
I definitely recommend Swift and would certainly use them again.
KWC
Derbyshire
Learn More
To discover more about a bespoke design company committed to your satisfaction, visit the Swift Unlimited website. Alternatively, engage with their friendly team on 01625 875 588 or via email: support@swiftorg.co.uk.
