Bespoke Acoustic Garden Studio Build — Ivor Novello Award-Winning Film Composer, London
The Brief
Tom Hodge is one of the UK's leading film and TV composers — an Ivor Novello Award winner whose credits span Academy Award-winning features, primetime BBC dramas, and Netflix blockbusters. His work demands an environment that can keep pace with it: a space for composing, recording, and critical listening that performs to hold the same standards as traditional commercial recording facilities. The brief was unambiguous — a fully engineered studio build, with acoustics at the forefront, built and implemented as a complete, working environment.
The Build
We designed and constructed a fully bespoke SB-X commission, specified from the ground up around Tom's requirements.
The site presented an immediate structural challenge: tree roots across the garden ruled out a conventional concrete slab. We installed a ground screw foundation system instead — a solution avoids the need to excavate, preserving the root structure of the surrounding trees, delivering a stable base with minimal disturbance to the ground. It's a detail invisible in the finished build, but fundamental to everything above it.
The exterior is finished in our Lunawood clad; thermally modified timber with outstanding stability and natural weather resistance, well suited to the British garden throughout every season.
Inside, the acoustic fit-out was designed and installed as an with a mixture of GIK and custom acoustic treatment. Fabric wall systems line the side walls, lit with an integrated LED system — functional acoustic treatment that also defines the character of the room. A GIK cloud system overhead addresses early reflections from above, while custom bass trapping bring low-frequency control to the back wall. The result is a room that measures well and is sonically balanced — vital in a professional listening environments.
The Result
Tom now composes, records, and monitors in a purpose-built acoustic environment at the end of his London garden. The fabric wall system, overhead cloud, and bass trapping configuration give him a room he can trust across the full frequency range, from the detail of a solo piano line to the weight of a full orchestral cue.
For film and TV composers, music producers, and audio professionals across London looking for a bespoke acoustic garden studio built to a professional specification, this commission is a clear example of what the SB-X service delivers — engineered foundations, a considered exterior, and a complete considered and calculated interior acoustic fit-out, all in one build.
