What looks like a garden shed is actually a fully soundproofed professional recording studio — designed Atelier 88 and built by Lewis O’Reilly Carpentry & Joinery in King’s Heath, Birmingham.

A Garden Studio That Does More

This project solved two problems at once: creating dedicated workspace in the garden, and freeing up a home office to become a bedroom again — giving the family more space without moving house. The result is The Black Lodge: a stealth-shed with the acoustic performance of a professional studio.

Professional Soundproofing in a Garden Recording Studio

Recording studios demand two things from soundproofing: as little as possible noise in, and as little as possible noise out. In a residential back garden, that second requirement is especially important. A standard drum kit produces 90–130 dB — roughly the same as a chainsaw. Getting that under control in a garden building recording studio takes specialist acoustic design. The Black Lodge uses a sophisticated soundproofing system developed from our work on the Masterchef TV studio in Digbeth, featuring:

• Room-within-a-room construction — an internal acoustic shell separated from the external structure to break the path of sound transmission

• Internal surfaces engineered to control resonance and sound reflections

• A sealed, thermally efficient external envelope that keeps noise in and the elements out

What Our Client Said

‘Martin at Atelier 88 Architects was the person I needed to get my garden building recording studio project moving. I had spent countless hours trying to work out the best way to go ahead, but when he turned up for our initial meeting everything started falling into place’.

‘The build itself looks deceptively simple, but under the surface is a complex sandwich of soundproofing that Martin knew about following previous designs he did with the BBC. We went back and forth a few times between Martin, myself and the builders to get a final design – a good compromise between cost, performance and aesthetics. At every stage I felt comfortable with what was happening and there were no unexpected costs, which I always appreciate!’

Client: Private

Value: £50,000 (approx.)

Status: Completed 2026