From Funky to Functional and Fun

Category
Naturalistic
About This Project

This Oakland backyard was weird and isolated. A detached garage chopped up the space and made getting into the backyard difficult. In addition, after testing the soil we were concerned about food farming on this site.

First, the garage was converted to a covered patio/storage and bicycle shed. This was achieved by re-engineering the garage and removing two of its walls. One of the remaining walls became a climbing wall for the kids. After re-purposing the garage we were also able to recapture 1/2 of the driveway in order to provide a play space.

Next, a circular slate patio became a hub that tied the space and all of its elements together.

Finally, our construction team hauled away the upper 12″ of lead contaminated soil from the entire yard and replaced it with healthy soil. We then installed four raised beds and this family started farming before we were even finished with the job.

Our client on this project, a web architect and creative genius, brought many great ideas.