Client
Laurelbank Farm
Year
2020
Services
BusinessesPlacemaking
The Concept
Studio idir were tasked with helping them transform the 7 acre homestead our clients (formerly Edible Flower, now Laurelbank Farm) had purchased into a community interest company focused on growing food, catering and hosting. Our clients were the experts of these areas of growing and cooking, and we collaborated closely with them to analyse the existing farm buildings and land, understand their spatial needs, come up with a masterplan for the land and detailed designs for the spaces. This included the potential to add a unit of self-catering guest accommodation within existing farm buildings.
now in frequent use for events, cooking and growing
Special moments within the design include the creation of a pond in the low, marshy portion of the field, a mexican garden where the farm buildings meet the fields, and transforming an existing, derelict, lowkey ‘tower’ within the farm courtyard into a viewing platform overlooking the fields and the distant Mourne Mountains.
We negotiated the designs through Planning and Building Control to obtain the necessary permissions and tendered to find a suitable contractor. The first phase of catering kitchen, event space and car park completed in 2023 and is now in frequent use for events, cooking and growing. Planting out and making productive use of the land is also well underway.
