Bath-based landscape architecture firm Grant Associates has tapped into Chinese design and philosophy for its first garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.
The practice, best known for producing major eye-catching architectural schemes across the globe for the past 21 years, has taken inspiration from the way China’s third-largest city Guangzhou is being landscaped for its small-scale Chelsea garden.
Originally due to be displayed last year – before the pandemic led to the event being cancelled – Grant Associates’ Guangzhou Garden channels the Chinese port city’s approach to environmental planning.
With a population of 15m and known as ‘the city between mountain and water’, Guangzhou – which is also Bristol’s ‘sister city’ – has a distinct ‘ecological civilisation’ environmental plan that divides it into three zones: social green space for people within the central business district (its heart), protected green spaces to the north (its lungs); and protected aquatic areas to the south (its kidneys).
Grant Associates’ garden, which has been designed by director Peter Chmiel and senior associate Chin-Jung Chen, pays homage to this philosophy, which gives equal consideration to the needs of people and wildlife through sustainable city planning strategies, reconnecting people and nature in a mutually beneficial relationship.
The garden has been designed on behalf of China-based culture project consultancy Creativersal and the main sponsor is the Administration of Forestry and Gardening of Guangzhou Municipality.
It is being created in collaboration with Sussex-based garden design consultancy The Outdoor Room and nursery Kelways Plants, based in Langport, Somerset. The bamboo structures are being developed in partnership with Charlie Brentnall and Martin Self of Bristol-based timber frame specialists Xylotek.
Peter Chmiel, pictured, said: “Taking part in our first RHS Chelsea Flower Show is an exciting creative challenge for us.
“We will be looking to capture the essence of vast and vibrant Guangzhou and distil it down into a garden plot just 20m by 10m!
“We are fortunate in our design approach and planting species for the Guangzhou show garden. September is a good time for aquatic displays and we are using this year’s autumn event as an opportunity to showcase our extensive and exotic wetland cleansing area, using a serene display of water lilies.
“RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a terrific opportunity for us to reach a bigger audience with the important message that we need to think about our future cities as landscape cities that enable people and nature to come closely together.
“We hope visitors will leave the Guangzhou Garden feeling uplifted and inspired about the possibilities for the future.”
Chin-Jung Chen, pictured, added: “We are delighted to now have the opportunity to unveil a design that’s been two years in the making for us – and are fortunate to have been working with a very experienced team on our journey to Chelsea.
“Devising the Guangzhou Garden has been a truly collaborative creative process.”
It will be one of 12 key artisan, sanctuary and show gardens planned for RHS Chelsea Flower Show in September, which also includes Gardens.
It is the first time in the show’s 108 year history that it will be held in autumn rather than spring.
Grant Associates, which also has an office in Singapore, has recently worked on the Friendship Park project in China’s innovative Tianjin Eco-City and a former industrial wasteland on Sydney’s waterfront.
Closer to home, it has also supported Bath’s Forest of Imagination community arts event, promoted the delicate ecology of Wessex Water’s operations centre on the city’s outskirts, and helped regenerate Bristol’s historic Harbourside as part of a £120m scheme for developer Crest Nicholson.
