I met with the client back in early January and following our initial consultation the roof terrace design in St John's Wood developed after myself and the client spoke about her childhood growing up in South Africa and how she saw bush fires and beautiful sunsets that created silhouettes of architectural trees in the savanna. I'd been keen to use Corten in a garden and thought the colour of this material was ideal and alongside an outside fire I could recreate some of those past memories. This change slotted in really well to our initial design and the corten complimented the dark charred driftwood cladding installed onto the vertical faces of the external terrace walls. The client from the onset made it quite clear she didn't want anything artificial but a few visits later I managed to win her over as the terrace now not only consists of artificial grass but artificial decking, artificial cladding and even an artificial green wall snaking through the cladding.

These long and narrow spaces, in my eyes, are the most difficult to design and I think what we have achieved is an amazing transformation and the clients are absolutely thrilled with the end result.