In 2005 the owners of this historic Upland Rd house were living overseas with their family of five. They briefed their architect to open the restricted family room to a new terrace accessing the large tired garden which they wanted re-designed ready for their return to NZ.

Having worked with Colin and Sue before on projects connecting architecture and garden design, the architect called them in. A key decision involved removing an existing swimming pool and building a new pool which connected with the family room. The challenges of a major drop and multiple access points to significant parts of the garden were met by the architects, the McLeans and their hard landscape designer Ross Leong.

The garden brief was to respect the character of the property while designing extensive new areas for recreation and developing new plantings to blend with significant trees which would be retained. All the new elements: terrace, pool, extensive lawns, gardens, water feature, garden walls and paths, sculpture, garden lighting and sweeping granite drive are now seamlessly absorbed into the lush planting.

A final stage has been the development of an edible garden to replace a derelict orchard not visible from the house. Low bluestone walls wrap around a spectacular formal potager garden which produces in abundance, including kilos of honey from the thriving bee hive.