Latest Update: Silver Gilt Winner
May 2019 sees the work of Living Concrete yet again enhancing one of the stunning gardens of London’s world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Back in 2018, Living Concrete made its debut at the show with a series of unique jigsaw pieces that fitted together to form a feature wall in the Outdoor Living show garden.
So it was with great delight and confidence that Living Concrete owner Daniel Wanat welcomed David Neale of Neale Richards Garden Design to his Chiswick showroom late last year. David was in the early stages of planning a new garden for sponsors Silent Pool Gin who, for 2019, have partnered with University of Surry to create a garden using scent and sound generated by plants. The garden would not only ‘transport the visitor to Surrey Hills’, but present a sustainable oasis of calm whose elements would combine to create a peaceful anti-stress garden. And if that wasn’t enough, there would be a plant-powered interactive soundscape helping visitors relax as well! More about that shortly…
David came to Living Concrete looking for natural, eco-friendly materials that would work as a backdrop for his design and complement his planting scheme.
Daniel suggested GAP wall panels which are suitable for outdoor settings, easy to install and come in a range of finishes. David chose panels measuring 900 x 600 x 20cm in a Rough Mist finish with stainless steel fittings which would make up an entire wall of the installation.
Whilst running a thriving business creating beautifully landscaped gardens for private customers, Neale Richards Garden Design is no strangers to the prize circuit. Their Urban Serenity garden was Gold Medal winner at the 2010 RHS Hampton Court Flower Show. Since then, their 2018 Silver Gilt Medal win for Silent Pool Gin at Chelsea firmly established their place in the upper echelons of garden design.
Of course, designers cannot realise their vision without the companies that provide the high quality materials from which they’re constructed. While wood, metal and stone have always had their place, versatile concrete has come into its own in recent years. A durable material that can take colour, a huge range of finishes, and withstand extremes of weather, concrete is an utterly bespoke material that can be cast into virtually any shape or size. No wonder it’s a designer’s dream.
David Neale is delighted with the wall that Living Concrete created for him and whose easy installation helped make the famously stressful Chelsea Flower Show build go smoothly. Here’s how the garden is put into words in the Chelsea Flower Show catalogue:
The Silent Pool Gin Garden takes inspiration from plant technologies and the greening of inner city spaces, combined with a passion to create a space that absorbs people’s woes through the senses of scent and sound.
Through the stone boulders at the garden’s entrance the eye is drawn down the wide stone steps and into the inner space. It has a large open ceiling void that engages the viewer with the scented rose bed. A semi-transparent, teal, etched botanical water wall moves the air within this space and acts as a foil to the planting and single juniper bonsai tree that is positioned within.
See The Silent Pool Gin Garden garden in situ.
The three-dimensional soundscape created by University of Surrey’s Professor Tony Myatt features audio recordings from the Surrey Hills, orchestrated by the garden itself through the power of plants. Meanwhile, colleague Professor Richard Murphy has utilised sensors to detect and capture changing electrical signals directly from the plants – so that the garden can govern and interact with the soundscape.
These natural sounds, which help the body relax, are combined with plants selected for their wellbeing properties: roses (powerful antioxidants), elderflower (for swollen sinuses), juniper (a known digestive aid), chamomile (sleep-booster) and iris (moisture-booster), many of which also feature among the 24 botanicals in Silent Pool Gin. The aroma will positively impact on the five million receptor cells in the brain and their links to the limbic system – which governs emotions, behaviour and long-term memory.
The prestige and excitement of contributing to a garden in such a highly-regarded event is a prize in itself for all concerned. But naturally the designer and his sponsors, the soundscape professors and the Living Concrete team are hoping that the new creation will appeal to the judges just as highly as the award-winning garden Neale designed for Silent Pool Gin in 2018.
But what happens when the show is over, you may ask? The entire garden and all its plantings will be dismantled, packed up, transported and reinstated at Cherry Trees; a small Surrey charity which provides home-from-home specialist short breaks for children and young adults who have a range of complex disabilities including learning, physical and sensory impairments.
