For years, Wayne Euston-Moore, his wife, Jo, and their two sons used the garage of their Hertfordshire home only for storage. “It was soulless, cold, and completely uninviting, but it had a great footprint,” Wayne says.

Wayne is the founder of the design-focused recruitment company Black Dot, and he often works from home—so he began to imagine what the garage might look like as a work studio. “I badly needed a place where I could get some serious headspace with limited distractions,” he says. One day, while scrolling on Facebook, he came across a post by the London-based architecture firm HyperSpace. “I loved their less-is-more approach,” he says, “and we’re completely aligned when it came to sustainability.”

Wayne reached out to the firm’s founder, Olli Andrew, and the two got down to brass tacks. “We talked about a high ceiling with vaulted beams, and I knew I wanted two large windows that would connect the space to the outside,” Wayne says. They also both liked the idea of sourcing materials within a 10-mile radius. The connection felt like kismet, so Wayne pulled the trigger and commissioned Andrew and HyperSpace to create the home office of his dreams.

As he began to develop a design plan, Andrew sought to preserve as many elements of the existing structure as possible. “We kept the majority of the exterior walls, and any interior blockwork was recycled as crushed hardcore for the landscaping,” he says. The architect also ensured that the old timber roof could be carefully dismantled and recycled. “Lengths of timber were cleaned of nails and screws and then repurposed,” he says. “We used lots of this timber in wall and gable-end structures of the new roof.”

The architect also used leftover timbers for the roof of another nearby project. “This reinvigorating and reimagining of old materials is key to the future of architecture,” he says. “By using circular economy principles of reuse, we can drastically rethink how we build.”

While designing the building’s facade, Andrew considered Wayne’s favorite color—black—and thought about ways to imbue the hue with texture and visual interest. He settled upon scorching hundreds of larch wood tiles using the shou sugi ban—or more accurately, yakisugi—method and affixing the charred scales to the exterior walls.

“The wood has varying tones and multiple textures—from deeply cracked to smooth grain, and pitted, rough surfaces that come to life with sunlight,” he says. “As you run your hands over it, you can feel the valleys and crests of the timber.”

“I love the fact that it’s like a nut,” Wayne (pictured) says, “dark on the outside and light on the inside—perfect contrast.”" layout="wide" credit="Photo by Simon Kennedy" photoUserId=""/>

Andrew also brought the studio to life in more ways than one. By creating crevices between the timber shingles, the architect devised what he calls “a virtual bug hotel.” “The gaps between the pieces of wood are designed to foster biodiversity,” he says. “The whole facade is covered in life. In the spring and summer, leafcutter bees, moths, and butterflies inhabit the walls, and in the winter, the insects hide deep within the wood.”

The design move weaves the studio’s exterior in with its serene setting. “The first day I met Wayne, he mentioned his desire to boost nature,” Andrew says. “Studies tell us how nature affects the body—it lowers stress, eases anxiety, and increases productivity.”

Whereas the studio’s exterior is dark and moody, the interior is light and bright with pale oiled oak flooring and plywood walls. To bring sunlight into the space, Andrews devised special daylighting elements. “The ‘light chimneys’ are effectively sunlight filters,” he says. “The top is formed via triple-glazed skylights, and directly below these are perforated forms that extrude down into the space.”

The light chimneys funnel sunshine, but they also mitigate it. “The perforations help to avoid overexposure,” says Andrew, who found inspiration in the way sunlight streams through treetops. “It’s dappled light, with a shimmering quality that’s mesmerizing,” he says. “I must’ve received 100 photographs from Wayne, mapping its path and intensity.”

Wayne’s love for his new workspace is so great, he finds it difficult to choose a favorite aspect. “Acoustically, I love that I can hear everything outside—particularly birdsong and the weather. Having that connection with nature is fantastic.”

And just as Andrew mentioned, he can’t get enough of the light chimneys. “Depending on the time of year and the position of the sun, the illuminations from the perforations are always in a different position on the walls—it’s just like a sundial,” Wayne says. “It’s an inspiring place to work, but also the perfect place to relax. Sometimes, I’ve no idea where time goes.”

Related Reading:

An Architect Builds an Experimental Garden Studio for Less Than £5K

A Seattle Architect Crafts a Hardworking Shed for Just Over $2,200

Project Credits:

Architecture: Hyper Space / @hyper_architecture

Construction: Paul Crudge & Richard Routley

Structural Engineer: Constant Structural Design

Homeowner: Wayne Euston-Moore, Black Dot

Appears In

This Garden Studio Wrapped in Charred Timber Shingles Acts Like a Giant Bug Hotel