Urban Chic

Eco Chic was the winner of the Urban Design Category

Eco Chic, a garden exploring the potential of under-used city spaces and the reuse of wasted materials on building sites, was named as the winner of the Urban Design Category at this year’s Chelsea Flower show.

The garden was designed by Kate Gould of Helios, a garden design and planting consultation firm for private home owners, developers and commercial institutions. The company was formed in the UK and has completed a series of projects in the Middle East.

The Eco Chic garden took as its subject the countless under-used inner-city spaces in the UK; spaces with no obvious water sources or proximity to other greenery, which could, nonetheless, provide city-dwellers with an outdoor refuge. The garden’s eco credentials come from its use of surplus elements left behind by builders and contractors, such as scaffold boards, ballast and planks.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

“Sometimes when I get onto a site, I am horrified by the amount of building materials left behind,” said Gould.

“Without flying the eco-flag too vigorously (this garden is not made entirely from a recycled palette), I do believe that we throw away far too much that could still be used with the application of a little imagination,” she explained.

The dimensions of the garden are 7m wide x 5m deep. Gould introduced dramatic green walls, permeable materials and shade-tolerant plants, taking into account that these inner-city spaces would, for the most part, be dank, dull and overshadowed in daylight hours.

In a real-life application, the garden would be self-sufficient in terms of water supply, relying on grey water from surrounding buildings. The permeability of most of the hard surfaces would ensure that water would always flow back to
the water table.

Two 2.5m green walls – planted with shade-tolerant perennials, particularly ferns – flank the garden, while two side walls are made up of recycled scaffold boards with scaffold pole supports.

“These are deliberately industrial in feel, linking in with the metal walkway. They are the kind of elements so often discarded by builders, but which have great advantages: they are very inexpensive if bought new and the top board is made of reclaimed oak; a hardwood, which can withstand bad weather as well,” said Gould.

A path, made up of an expanded mesh walkway, runs through the scheme, which is also home to a water feature and seats.