Why seek out Unique Garden Rooms?

Few garden rooms are as unusual as the beautifully crafted Rotunda and truly unique garden rooms are few and far between …. what are the features and fittings available in today’s marketplace which makes a garden room truly innovative? A quick look at a few of the benefits of truly unique garden rooms should assist us with highlighting some of the main elements to look out for.

1. Shape.   It’s not just the sweep of an architects pen which decides the shape and feel of a garden building; there are numerous factors which are essential to defining the best shape in construction. Unique garden rooms should certainly never be a box.  (For there is nothing more uninspiring and unnatural than a box!)
   1. The circle. for example – requires 30% fewer materials in construction to build the same amount of floor area, creates the strongest structural form of any other shape and promotes excellent thermal dynamics and energy saving benefits. Coupled with the fact that environmental psychologists & therapists cite the round as being the optimum shape for emotional well-being, we believe that the circle is a no-brainer when it comes to designing a unique garden building which is both functional and feel-good.
2. Bespoke & Interchangeable Design Features.  Truly unique garden rooms should be designed around your needs and your garden.  If you’re siting your building in the corner or against the boundary of your garden you should be able to position the windows and door/s to provide the best vantage and accessibility.  Rotundas are designed using multiple panel configurations whereby you choose which panels contain windows, which are solid walls and where the door is positioned. This means that each and every Rotunda, albeit modular, is unique.
3. Varying & optional Window Sizes. Not all garden rooms are used for the same purpose and many would like windows which are sized to suit the furniture inside or to capture the view.  Unique garden rooms should be designed with at least three or four styles and sizes of window, to enable the occupier to design around their requirements. 4.  Interchangeable & unusual fittings.  Some garden room manufacturers promoting their ‘unique garden rooms’ will actually just provide their clients with a standard ‘one size fits all’ door or a range of UPVC windows which come directly from the glazing company. A handcrafted timber garden building however, like the Rotunda should allow you the option of being able to specify alternate timber species and door and window furniture.  With a Rotunda, at least three timber species are offered, for the doors and windows and the window and door furniture can be changed to suit your particular tastes. (Our standard option and preferred by our clients are the pewter or wrought iron hand-forged monkeytail handles)

5.  Unique Garden Rooms have at least one showstopping architectural feature.   Put quite simply, very few people could argue that a Cathedral Roof with large, solid English timber beams, ascending up to a double glazed roof light dome is less than captivating.  One would be hard pressed to discover another garden room with a roof quite so spectacular.  If you’re seeking a truly unique garden room, keep your eye out for unusual architectural details like gabled roof lines, exposed timbers, unusual light fittings and velux or rooflight windows to maximise the light flooding into the building.

6.  The finishing touches.  Unique garden rooms should be personalised, as a special example of a unique product of craftsmanship; all unique garden rooms should of course display little touches here and there which serve to illustrate how a truly special building can feel more like a boat, or a treasured piece of furniture.  One of the special features which always surprises and delights our clients is the hand carved solid English oak name plaque which is positioned by the door.

Only truly unique garden rooms have their own name, chosen by their owner at the point of order.

And why is this so important?  Why do we strive to be and seek unique?

Because, like you, the Rotunda is a product of this world, borne of a deeper Philosophy; by it’s very nature it’s a celebration of the organic and natural world.  The core ethos of Rotunda stands shoulder to shoulder with every progressive and alternative architect and philosopher from days gone by.  It resonates and repeats the thoughts and desires of men such as Antoni Gaudi, Rudolph Steiner and Alan Watts.  It shatters the lines of the rectilinear world which only serves to confine and restrain our individual creativity.

To be unique is to be proud of our identity, to be bold where others may seek to hide behind the masses and to celebrate the uniqueness and character of each of the mature English trees which have been felled to create our spaces.

There are numerous other unique and inspirational elements which we incorporate into the Rotunda buildings such as Infared Heating Panels, Gothic Windows and curved furniture, but hopefully this little blogpost will assist you with identifying some of the main elements which makes “unique” truly unique.