A sanctuary held quiet within the city

Mid-way through a full home renovation, the client’s rear courtyard had become a catch-all for building materials and debris. At under 25m², they wanted something architectural and low-maintenance — a calm, considered garden that could hold its own against a freshly renovated terrace. Two specifics shaped the design: a zen-like focal point that could be seen from the home office, and plants that would flower in warm oranges to play off the feature wall.

Inner-city terrace courtyards are small, hemmed in by neighbouring buildings, and often inherited in poor condition. This one arrived mid-renovation as a dumping ground for building debris — broken concrete, PVC and rubble across the whole space, with compacted fill in place of workable soil. Clearing the bed uncovered a concrete slab just below the surface, cut and removed on the day rather than delaying the work. Beneath it were large sandstone pieces, likely remnants of an earlier foundation — kept and set into the beds as feature rocks, so a piece of the site’s history now sits inside its calmest corner.

Behind a Surry Hills terrace, a sculptural courtyard that reads as calm from the moment you step out. A Tree Aloe anchors the space with a maturity most new plantings take years to reach, columnar cacti give it vertical rhythm, and warm orange flowers stand out against the pale blue feature wall. The whole composition sits on a pale pebble dressing with sandstone feature rocks breaking the ground plane. Viewed from the home office it works as the zen focal point the brief asked for — and it asks almost nothing in return: minimal water, no lawn, no seasonal replanting.