Eleanor Voss
Co-Founder & Principal Architect
Trained at the University of Greenwich; 22 years in residential and estate landscape design across the UK and Europe.
Our studio
A practice built around
one long table.
TerraLux Studio started in 2009 as a two-person design practice working out of a converted glasshouse in Surrey. Sixteen years on, we're a team of landscape architects, horticulturalists, lighting designers and craftspeople — still working from the same long table, now spread across seven regions.
Why we exist
Most gardens fail at the handoff —
so we removed it.
Our founders, Eleanor Voss and Tomás Ferreira, met while working on opposite sides of the same project: Eleanor as the landscape architect, Tomás as the contractor asked to build her drawings. They spent more time translating the design between disciplines than actually building it.
TerraLux exists to close that gap. Our design team and our build teams sit in the same studios, use the same drawings, and — on every project — at least one designer stays involved through to planting day. It's a slower way to grow a company. It's also, we think, the only way to consistently deliver what was actually promised.
Sixteen years
How we got here.
2009
Founded in Surrey, UK
Eleanor and Tomás take on their first residential commission — a walled kitchen garden restoration for a Georgian farmhouse.
2013
First international project
A villa garden in the south of France introduces TerraLux to Mediterranean planting and water-wise irrigation design.
2016
Dubai studio opens
A growing portfolio of Gulf-region villa gardens leads to a permanent design studio and local build partnership in Dubai.
2019
Hospitality & commercial division
TerraLux begins working with boutique hotel groups on grounds and courtyard design, starting with a property in Cape Town.
2022
In-house horticulture lab
A dedicated propagation nursery near our UK studio begins growing specimen plants for projects up to two years ahead of planting.
2025
540+ projects, 7 regions
Today, TerraLux design teams work from studios in the UK, US, UAE, Australia and Singapore, supported by vetted build partners worldwide.
How we work
Four things we don't
compromise on.
These aren't values in the framed-poster sense. They're the things that show up in how a project actually gets run — and the reasons clients tend to come back for a second garden, or refer us to a neighbour.
01
One team, start to finish
The designer who draws your garden is the same person who walks the site during construction. No project is handed to a different office partway through.
02
Plant lists we stand behind
Every specimen on a planting plan is sourced from nurseries we've inspected — and where possible, grown in our own propagation beds ahead of time.
03
Honest scoping, written down
Every proposal includes a written scope of what is — and isn't — included. Variations are priced before they happen, not invoiced after.
04
Gardens we're still proud of in year five
We design for how a planting scheme will look in five and ten years, not just on handover day — and we maintain a portion of our portfolio long-term to prove it.
Leadership
The people drawing
and building.
Our design leads each specialise in a region and stay closely involved with a small portfolio of projects at a time — typically no more than six concurrently.
Tomás Ferreira
Co-Founder & Build Director
Stonemason by training; oversees hardscaping standards and crew training across every TerraLux build team.
Priya Nair
Design Director, Middle East & APAC
Leads the Dubai studio; specialist in arid-climate planting and shaded courtyard design for villa and resort gardens.
James Okafor
Head of Horticulture
Runs the propagation nursery and writes every planting and establishment plan across the studio's portfolio.
Recognition
A handful of things
we're proud of.
Awards aren't why we do this, but they're a useful outside check that the standards we hold ourselves to are actually showing up in the work.
See the projects behind these2025
Society of Garden Designers — Sustainable Garden Award, Hillside Courtyard project
Shortlisted
Shortlisted
2024
International Hotel & Property Awards — Best Hotel Landscape, Africa & Indian Ocean
Winner — Cliffside Terraces, Cape Town
Winner — Cliffside Terraces, Cape Town
2023
RHS Chelsea Fringe — Featured Garden, "Water Without Waste"
Selected exhibitor
Selected exhibitor
2021
Middle East Landscape Awards — Best Private Garden, UAE
Winner — Al Marmoom Villa Garden
Winner — Al Marmoom Villa Garden
2018
Society of Garden Designers — Grand Award, Residential Category
Finalist
Finalist
Join the studio
We're often hiring
designers & craftspeople.
If you'd rather be at the studio table than reading about it, see current openings across our regional teams.