01
Season first
Decisions are checked against weather, and against the months you actually spend there.
About Us
The work begins outside the door.
The grounds are the larger room. The house has to answer to them.
A private practice for land that is already loved, and ready to be lived in with more care.
Acres & Yards began with a clear brief of our own: treat the yard and the acres as part of the architecture. Families come to us when a place is inherited or newly acquired, and the ground is slightly too loud — too much lawn, too many gestures, a view interrupted by the wrong tree.
The studio stays small on purpose. The people who draw the plan are the people who walk it. Appointments, tracing paper, and a calendar marked by seasons are the whole of the practice.
“Proportion first. Then the materials that can live outside.”
We take few commissions at a time, so a project can be visited in more than one season before it is called finished. The result should feel as if the land had been waiting for that exact arrangement.
Principles
02
The yard is a room
A space with no ceiling still needs proportion, shade, and a reason to be crossed or stayed in.
03
Materials that weather
Stone, timber, and metal are chosen for the way they look after ten years of rain.
04
A plan you can live in
The drawing has to survive children, guests, and an ordinary Tuesday morning.
How a commission moves
Four movements, usually across more than one season.
01
Walk
We visit while the weather is being itself. The first drawing is usually a set of notes.
02
Draw
House, yard, and acre go on the same sheet until they agree with one another.
03
Make
We stay near the masons, gardeners, and joiners while the work takes its shape.
04
Return
Seasonal visits follow. The place is given time to teach the plan what to adjust.