Chalk farm engineer and treehouse specialist talks about co-designing a new Escape Pod that can sit at the bottom of your garden
Garage conversions, garden extensions, yurts – however you do it, people are looking to optimise the space they’ve already got.
Podmakers Ltd have designed an Escape Pod, an elliptical, organic, rotating pod, which can be tailored to individuals and fit neatly into the corner of the lawn.
Despite being designed and created in the Gloucestershire countryside, one has recently been installed in a garden in Primrose Hill, showing how it can fit into a city residence.
“For Londoners, it offers an escape within the confines of your own home, whether it be to work, relax, meditate or socialise. Even an extra place to sleep when your children come back from university,” says Chalk Farm-born engineer Jeremy Fitter, co-creator of the pod.
“With property prices so high in London, it allows Londoners to make the most of their land. A place at the bottom of the garden that you really want to use.”
Using strong birch plywood, exposed on the interior, the outside of the pod is clad with cedar shingles while steps and windowsills are clad in European oak. Over time both of these woods will develop a silver hue, letting the pod blend in with its surroundings.
Dominic Ash and Jeremy Fitter are the team behind Podmakers Ltd. Ash brings 30 years of design experience, while Fitter, is fresh from a Masters in civil engineering, specialising in treehouse design.
“Dominic and I originally came up with a much more basic version of the pod,” he says. “It followed the same curved form but was open sided and was intended as a gazebo type, covered space in your garden.
“The design morphed over a couple of prototypes into a heated, insulated, electrified, rotating structure, intended for multiple uses.
“The concept is to have an unusual and aesthetically striking structure, but is not domineering, that is also a fully functioning, workable space.”
The pod can be used as an office, studio or bedroom and each one is created to meet those needs. The price starts at £19,800, but varies depending on style specifications.
Escaping for a bit of peace and quiet in the garden shed has never looked so glamorous.
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