A Quarter-Acre Dream

A largely empty 1,000m² Rangiora section gave Canterra co-director Connor Sullivan and his three-person team the opportunity to create an outdoor environment from the ground up – bringing together spaces for entertaining, cooking and wellness within one cohesive landscape

The Canterbury Plains are home to big skies, snow-capped mountains, braided rivers and huge expanses of space. It’s only natural that anyone lucky enough to own a decent plot of land in the area would seek to maximise its potential – especially when the average temperature nudges 20°C from November-March.

That’s exactly what Canterra’s biggest client to date wanted – and gave landscape architect Connor a blank slate to do it with.

Apart from a deck and spa pool, which were retained and modified, much of the section was unused. Over three months, Canterra transformed it with around 100m² of bluestone paving, a new parking area, spa and sauna retreat, outdoor fireplace, pergolas, outdoor kitchen and extensive new planting.

For Connor, the generous proportions were an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

“Where most residential sections we work with have considerably less space, it was nice to work with a section that was larger,” he says.

“It was much easier to introduce different landscape elements without being cramped for room.”

The clients are keen entertainers, so creating generous outdoor areas for friends and family was central to the brief. However, Canterra was conscious that the landscape needed more than hard surfaces and entertaining infrastructure.

“Ensuring there was enough softscape and wellness space to balance this was important and this was seen in the final design,” says Connor.

Creating Outdoor Rooms

Rather than treating the section as one large outdoor area, the design uses the home’s existing features as anchors for a series of outdoor rooms.

The existing spa formed the starting point for a dedicated wellness area. It had previously sat within what Connor describes as a “pretty bland” expanse of lawn and decking – but after hearing that the clients were considering a sauna, the Canterra team saw an opportunity.

They added the sauna and seating and used planting to distinguish the retreat from the more social areas of the garden, which will increasingly enclose the wellness area as it matures, eventually creating what he describes as a “green oasis”.

Elsewhere, the area between an existing man cave and the house naturally lent itself to cooking and dining.

An electric louvred pergola shelters the kitchen and dining area during colder months, while a separate outdoor fireplace and lounge at ground level provide a more open space for summer and the shoulder seasons.

Taking the Kitchen Outside

A substantial outdoor kitchen forms the heart of the entertaining area and is designed to give the clients access to the conveniences they would expect indoors.

“The client wanted a kitchen area where they had all their indoor kitchen needs outside,” Connor says.

The kitchen incorporates a built-in barbecue, sink and tap and extensive storage. A steel carcass with glass fibre reinforced concrete benchtops were selected with durability in mind.

“They are made to take a hammering and still look brand new,” he says.

Integrating the kitchen, pergola and outdoor fireplace required considerable precision. The kitchen splashback sits at the same height as the fireplace on the lower paved level, which in turn aligns with the top of a plastered block wall.

“Ensuring all of these levels met at one point was a challenge without having all of the items in front of you at once,” Connor says.

Keeping It Cohesive

With so many individual features, restricting the material palette helped prevent the landscape from becoming overly complicated.

White painted plaster from the house is repeated on the fireplace and block wall, while exposed aggregate from the existing driveway is carried through the new hardscape.

Around 100m² of 300x600mm bluestone paving was installed across the wellness and outdoor living areas. Large-format pieces are also used as steppers alongside exposed aggregate at the side entrance, while splitface bluestone cobbles form the threshold between the existing driveway and new parking court.

Using the stone in different finishes introduced variation without adding competing materials. It is also among the work Connor is most proud of.

“The paved areas were laid with a large amount of prep work,” he says. “These areas were built to last – something we strive for in all of our work.”

Beneath the paving sits more than 100mm of concrete over a further 100mm-plus of compacted basecourse.

“A lot of the time, you see people pave straight onto base. Having that concrete is more expensive and it’s not always feasible for everyone, but it’s those minor details that matter. I believe using 100mm of concrete will improve this project’s lifespan.”

What Lies Beneath

The paving wasn’t the only part of the project where much of Canterra’s effort ultimately disappeared from view.

Heavy clay was discovered once site works began. Rather than simply excavating larger holes and introducing improved soil around individual plants, Canterra removed approximately 300-400mm of material across the site and replaced it with soil containing higher levels of organic matter.

“We could easily have just dug bigger holes around each plant and filled that with some decent soil,” Connor says.

“But that limits future planting. If the clients want to add things themselves down the track, we’ve now set the platform for them to easily do that.”

Spending weeks on site also gave Connor a better understanding of conditions than the original plan could provide. After observing the movement of the sun across the property for eight to ten hours each day, he made minor changes to plant positions before installation.

The predominantly exotic palette includes large-leaved Ligularia and Arthropodium, while a substantial Prunus lusitanica hedge wraps around the southern boundary towards the wellness area. Magnolias, flowering dogwoods and New Zealand beech will provide added privacy as they establish.

Feature specimens including Juniperus ‘Kaizuka’ and Cornus ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’ are picked out with garden spike lighting, while repeated species connect planting areas across the section.

Reputation Over Profit

With only three people working on the ground, the three-month build was Canterra’s largest project to date. Connor says one of its most rewarding aspects was watching the younger members of his team rise to the challenge.

“I was proud of the growth I saw in my young guys, who took the challenge head on and took great initiative at various points throughout the project,” he says.

The experience reinforced both the importance of planning – Connor says larger projects can sometimes be “more complicated off site than on it” – and a Canterra philosophy he sums up as “reputation over profit”.

That is reflected in the additional preparation beneath the paving and planting and also in the expectations Connor sets for his team.

“I’m never going to rush the boys on a job,” he says. “I would much rather they take their time, do it properly and ask all the questions they want to ask.”

For Connor, that approach is particularly important in an industry where skilled landscape construction can sometimes be confused with work homeowners could simply tackle themselves.

“Because it’s such a DIY-heavy industry, it can come with a notion that there are a lot of cowboys around. People think they can do it themselves and, because you don’t need to be licensed, they can question why they need to pay so much for this product.

“But as professionals, we need to uphold our trade through quality of work and craftsmanship – taking pride in what we do.”

Canterra can certainly take pride in its work on this project, which has turned a largely empty Rangiora section into a landscape designed for living – now and for the long term.