About the project

We were incredibly excited to be invited to work with leading designer Alistair Bayford on this garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019. Commissioned by charity Family Action to promote its ‘Family Monsters’ initiative, and built by landscaping giant idverde, it went on to win the highly prestigious Best Artisan Garden award.

The garden’s focal point was a central pool of water one metre deep. Artisan gardens at Chelsea are ‘no-dig’, which meant raising the level of the garden to accommodate it. This complex design and engineering challenge was compounded by the design’s numerous curves and arcs, and the fact that, unusually at Chelsea, the garden was intended to be viewed from all sides.

From Alistair’s rough sketch and a watercolour artist’s impression, we produced detailed drawings in an iterative, consultative process. We fabricated the entire structure in 8mm corten, pre-treated to establish the distinctive rusted surface appearance. The central pool is a rough teardrop shape measuring 2.5m x 1.75m, surrounded by a corten deck which flows seamlessly into a ramp, coated with a gravel-effect resin bond, spiralling down to ground level. The structure is supported by steel legs and gabions, with our standard corten edging panels, designed and manufactured entirely in-house, running round the perimeter.

This was one of the most extensive metalwork design and manufacturing projects we’ve ever undertaken at Chelsea: it took two of our skilled specialists 10 days to complete the fabrication. It was also an exemplary demonstration of our unique ability to take a designer’s vision and make it a reality in metal, to the highest standards of structural integrity and aesthetic perfection.

About the project

We were incredibly excited to be invited to work with leading designer Alistair Bayford on this garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019. Commissioned by charity Family Action to promote its ‘Family Monsters’ initiative, and built by landscaping giant idverde, it went on to win the highly prestigious Best Artisan Garden award.

The garden’s focal point was a central pool of water one metre deep. Artisan gardens at Chelsea are ‘no-dig’, which meant raising the level of the garden to accommodate it. This complex design and engineering challenge was compounded by the design’s numerous curves and arcs, and the fact that, unusually at Chelsea, the garden was intended to be viewed from all sides.

From Alistair’s rough sketch and a watercolour artist’s impression, we produced detailed drawings in an iterative, consultative process. We fabricated the entire structure in 8mm corten, pre-treated to establish the distinctive rusted surface appearance. The central pool is a rough teardrop shape measuring 2.5m x 1.75m, surrounded by a corten deck which flows seamlessly into a ramp, coated with a gravel-effect resin bond, spiralling down to ground level. The structure is supported by steel legs and gabions, with our standard corten edging panels, designed and manufactured entirely in-house, running round the perimeter.

This was one of the most extensive metalwork design and manufacturing projects we’ve ever undertaken at Chelsea: it took two of our skilled specialists 10 days to complete the fabrication. It was also an exemplary demonstration of our unique ability to take a designer’s vision and make it a reality in metal, to the highest standards of structural integrity and aesthetic perfection.