Over the last 12 months we have enjoyed being part of a Chelsea Garden design team, led by Professor Nigel Dunnett.
Our role has been to look at ways to convey, as an overarching sculptural form, the dynamism of a dune landscape, and the power the wind plays in constantly shaping the sand.
Final conceptual render (without planting)
To build a Chelsea garden that could successfully express something of this natural drama, is quite a challenge, and we considered using many different ways and materials. But our starting point was to create the shape of the garden, and a setting that would allow a sense of enclosure and movement, this we achieved by making a model in sand.
Nigel and landscape architect Ed Payne spent a very creative day here in the studio, developing dune shapes in foundry sand, and discussing over lunch the best way to develop the vision. Each of the scale models created that day contributed ideas that helped us develop a final scale model that was then 3D scanned.
Landform scanned by Print City at MMU
The 3D scanning by @printcity at Manchester Metropolitan University gave us a digital structure that we were then able to manipulate and slice in thicknesses dependant on the material, and cost constraints. We could imagine building the garden in stone, terracotta, metal or wood, with a thicker option even allowing a cnc shaped top edge. The space between the slices also needed to work for the sand infill and very importantly the planting design. After many iterations we settled on 20mm Medite board with a 400mm gap infilled with silica sand kindly donated by Bathgate Quarry in Cheshire..
The vision for the garden is that it should accommodate a space for a creative practitioner, presenting two themes: the theme of the landscape and the theme of human creativity. At the heart of both we saw a dialogue of opposites that could be developed and expressed to quite dramatic effect.
The concept of this garden, with its artist’s studio nestling between dunes and rainwater pool really caught our imaginations. We see in it a dialogue between contrasting environments that serves as a metaphor for the creative process. The dry side of the garden, with its high, windswept dunes. The wet side of the garden, with its low, sheltered pool of water. The various sorts of plants that flourish in these quite different conditions. Two equally productive expressions of the creative impulse continually at work in nature.
Into this setting enters a third element: human creativity, as represented by the studio. The studio looks out at both sides of the garden. Inside, the human being draws inspiration now from one side, now from the other. The dialogue of opposites moves from the natural environment into the human mind. It becomes a process that results in an artwork.
Our ambition for the artist’s shelter was that it also formed part of the dune structure, but this proved to be too ambitious, even though the thought of a cave structure was very appealing. The alternative artists studio has been supplied by Bothy @bothystores and will return to Arbroath along with the garden where the art charity Hospitalfield will recreate a space for creative endeavour linked to local schools.
The garden structure is now being constructed by @Landform, with our Peter assisting daily, and then very soon the sand and planting will begin … more to follow.
Elevation from Sand model - rendered
“The shapes and forms and textures of the dunes local to Arbroath were the starting point for the design...
The dramatic dunes at Lunan Bay near Arbroath, Scotland, where @hospitalfield is based - I wanted to make strong reference to this landscape, within which @hospitalfield as an organisation and place is set, not trying to copy this or recreate it, but making a more abstract version, as if viewed through the eyes of a sculptor for example. It’s the sheer three-dimensionality of the landscape that is inspiring, the forms of the individual dunes, and the way the shapes interact with each other as you move alongside them or through them. That’s what we are aiming to capture.”
Pictures from site to follow in next post.
Nigel Dunnett Lead designer @nigeldunnett
The garden is funded by @project.giving.back
Super-human construction by @landformuk
Sculptors: @broadbentstudio
Charity partner @hospitalfield
Design coordination and detailing: @thelandscapeagency
Plants @hortus_loci
Bothy @bothystores
