A brutalist garden revived: the case of the Mountbatten House grounds by Studio Knight Stokoe

Think of hanging gardens and lush cascading green terraces and the image conjured up might not immediately take you to Basingstoke, UK. Yet this is exactly where such a project is located; welcome to Plant, the impressive new scheme by Studio Knight Stokoe. Founded in 2022 by partners Martin Knight and Claire Stokoe, the landscape practice, was called upon to revive the protected gardens of an important Grade II listed modernist building - Mountbatten House.

While Twelve Architects worked on the complex’s internal refurb to a commercial workplace (all in collaboration with the client, Mactaggart Family & Partners, developer Longstock Capitaland contractor, CField Construction to complete the Grant Associates and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios design, to deliver and reinstate the buildings’ original pioneering design intent), the young landscape studio was tasked with rejuvenating its grounds, which were created in 1976 by noted garden designer and horticulturist James Russell.

Explore this reworked brutalist garden

The landscape scheme includes five levels of terraced roof gardens and ground-level areas. Injecting 21st-century flair to the historical building, Knight and Stokoe continued the themes from the original design. The former explains: ‘The terraces are designed and constructed as you would a private garden at ground level, in that there are no raised planters, and areas of paving, lawn, and planting beds transition seamlessly. This project is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure the gardens can be used and enjoyed for at least the next 50 years of the building’s life.'

Supported by the client, who aimed to sensitively retrofit and reuse the existing building and reestablish its gardens, Knight Stokoe was only six months old when the team took on the project. Maintaining Russell’s concept for the green space to be ‘informal, elaborate, romantic, overflowing, and tumbling,’ the gardens were redesigned to be resilient to extreme weather, which was reflected in the plant species.

These bridge ‘original planting palettes, provide for pollinators and enhance ecological habitats and biodiversity,’ Knight and Stokoe, who place sustainability at their work’s heart and whose studio is B Corp-registered, explain. ‘The relationship between internal and external spaces is also crucial, with building occupants having direct and inclusive access to each garden, fostering deeper connections with the natural world.’

knightstokoe.co.uk