A team garden office overlooking farmland by Swift Unlimited
A garden office in Warrington for a business leaving a serviced office lease, with room for up to eight desks, a wide picture window framing the farmland behind and a cloakroom of its own.
This garden office in Warrington by Swift Unlimited was designed as an alternative to commercial office space. The client’s serviced office lease was coming to an end, and with the new terms far more expensive, they asked Swift Unlimited for a building at home that could house several workstations and give staff and visiting clients the same professional setting.
It is a clever design in that it solves that need, but it also creates a high-specification building with a versatile space that could be used for other things in the future.
At a glance
- Size: 6.3m x 5.1m and 2.5m tall, with an open office of around 25sqm inside and a cloakroom.
- Built for: a business replacing a serviced office lease, with room for staff and visiting clients.
- Construction: Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), aluminium-framed double glazing and air conditioning, built in four weeks.
- Finishes: render with Anthracite Grey doors and windows outside; plastered walls and ceiling and a herringbone floor inside.
- Company: Swift Unlimited, designing and building it in close collaboration with the client.
See more garden offices →
Designed around a farmland view
The building sits at the end of the garden, where a railing fence is all that separates the lawn from open farmland. The design makes the most of that countryside setting. A wide picture window on the end wall frames the farmland view from the desks, and large sliding doors along the side lead out onto the garden.
A glazed door on the side allows for easy everyday access. It is set into a recessed corner of the building, sheltered by the roof overhang.
Room for up to eight desks
Inside, the office measures 5.6m by 4.4m, around 25sqm, and Swift Unlimited sized it to take up to eight full desks. The desks are grouped towards the picture window and the back wall, leaving the area beside the sliding doors free for a comfortable seating area looking out over the garden.
The Swift Unlimited team work out the electrical specification as part of the design. In a project like this, that means planning for the needs of the computers from the start, with double sockets spaced around the walls where the desks sit and a data point, so there are no trailing cables. They also handle the final connections to the house. A grid of twenty recessed, dimmable LED downlights gives even light across every desk.
A finished interior
The walls and ceiling are plastered and decorated, and a herringbone floor runs the length of the room. Air conditioning provides year-round temperature control.
A very stylish cloakroom means staff and visitors don’t need to use the facilities in the main house. Deep blue tiles run to shelf height below a tropical wallpaper, and a glass-block window brings in daylight while keeping the room private.
SIPs construction and a rendered finish
Swift Unlimited design each building in close collaboration with the client. The core structure is built from house-quality Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), which create a highly insulated shell, coupled with high-spec aluminium-framed double-glazed doors and windows.
The exterior can be finished in whatever the client prefers, and finishes can be mixed where that is the vision. Here, render offers a crisp contemporary look paired with Anthracite Grey doors and windows, and matches the colour and look of the house.
The building stands 2.5 metres tall. That is the height limit for a garden building within two metres of a boundary under Permitted Development, which mattered here as the office sits close to the neighbour’s boundary.
Four weeks from lawn to office
Swift Unlimited completed the build in four weeks, at a cost of around £70,000 to £75,000. For the client, that replaced an ongoing office rent with a building of their own.
“The space feels professional, comfortable, and perfectly suited to our business,” the client says. “We now have plenty of room for staff, clients, and day to day working, all while adding real value to our home. I only wish we had done it sooner.”
With an insulated shell, air conditioning and a cloakroom of its own, the building is not tied to its first use, and could serve the household in other ways if the business moves on.
Learn more about Swift Unlimited
To find out more about Swift Unlimited’s bespoke garden rooms, annexes and extensions, visit swiftorg.co.uk. You can contact the team on 01625 875 588 or at support@swiftunlimited.co.uk to discuss your project.
