Garden rooms are similar to conservatories in many ways but they are generally far more substantial with full height pillars and roofs incorporating lanterns to increase the sense of space and light. They appear more architecturally intended and less ‘stuck on’.
They blur the edges between inside and outside living and offer excellent family room and kitchen and dining possibilities. Aspect is a particularly important consideration - an incorrectly sited garden room can be a greenhouse in summer and glacier in winter.
Lifestyle considerations need to be mapped out, is it to be a quiet retreat or party room? Is it a gym, leisure and play space, office or guest bedroom? Depending on the objectives, the architectural solutions can be very different. It may be detached from the main building for example. An orangery structure can also be beneficial where there are first-floor windows above or where there are restrictions on how tall the planning department would allow.
Planning and building regulations
Regulations vary considerably depending on whether the garden room is attached or detached:
Attached to building
Planning authorities will usually apply their local policies for single story rear house extensions or any specific conservatory policy. Permitted development legislation may also make a garden room project possible.
Building Regulations limit the amount of glass that is possible due to the amount of glazing that would require external (thermally broken etc) doors to separate the main house from the new contemporary garden room extension. Heating systems may also be specified. With careful design and planning it may be possible to allow the garden room extensions to be separated by normal internal doors or by having no separating doors at all.
Detached to building
With regard to planning, for detached contemporary garden rooms, permitted development would potentially allow substantial structures to be created, however, there are restrictions on several factors including external heights, position relative to boundaries as well as the percentage of residential curtilage built on.
Building Regulation implications vary depending on several factors such as the size of the structure and whether there is any sleeping accommodation but contemporary garden rooms may not require building regulations approval at all.
Carter’s has successfully delivered many garden room projects. Many clients want to flood space with light and bring the garden into the home. Style options are endless, whether attached or detached from the main property, including limited structures, oak frames, steel engineering, and cantilevered roofs that extend to act as external shelter etc.
