New Book by Luciano Giubbilei: Nature and Human Intervention

Nature and Human Intervention is Luciano Giubbilei’s second book. The book details the process behind the 2011 Laurent-Perrier Chelsea Flower Show gold-medal garden,a collaboration between three acclaimed artists-garden designer Luciano Giubbilei, architect Kengo Kuma,and sculptor Peter Randall-Page.

Captured in 250 colour photographs by Steve Wooster and Allan Pollock-Morris and essays by garden historian Kathryn Aalto,the book shows how artists, craftsmen, and suppliers worked together to expose, highlight, and craft beauty from Nature. “We return time and again to the comfortable vocabularies, images, sounds, memories, thoughts and feelings that constitute the boundaries of our experience and expression,”says Luciano  Giubbilei.“Yet every now and then, we encounter a breakthrough moment– a rare instant when the daunting constraints of possibility melt away and when we gain the courage to focus through new lenses.

”The book is published as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies, of which only 500 copies are to be released to the general public. Retailing at £35.00 to purchase a copy please visit www.lucianogiubbilei.com.

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Should RHS show judges be allowed to enter Chelsea Flower Show? …..not in any other industry they wouldn’t!

At this years Chelsea Flower Show, Mark Gregory, an established landscaper was one of several RHS show judges exhibiting, who won a gold medal. Gregory’s gold was for a nice little courtyard garden for the Children’s Society. 

The garden was meticulously put together, but in design terms, was nothing that I wouldn’t have expect from one of my student’s first design projects.  Surprising then, that it got a gold despite the fact that it was nothing particularly special.

In the press this month questions have been raised about next years Chelsea Flower Show and the fact the chairman of the show judges, intends to build his second garden and is currently looking for sponsorship.

Forgive my scepticism, but if I was a sponsor with a couple of hundred grand to spend,  this would seem to me, the horticultural equivalent of looking a gift horse in the mouth!

How can the remaining RHS show judges possibly assess this garden in a fair and unbiased fashion?  The whole thing reeks of the old boy network and wouldn’t be tolerated in any other industry.

Without exception, every competition I can find, the rules clearly state that no employees or family of employees are permitted to enter and whilst the judges are volunteers, with hundreds of thousands of pounds in sponsorship and TV deals at stake, this clearly is a conflict of interest and the sooner the RHS wakes up to the fact the better.

What do you think?  Should judges be able to enter their own competitions?

Technorati Tags: Mark Gregory,RHS,Chelsea,Show Gardens,2011,2010,Gold Medal,Old Boy Network

Chelsea Flower Show 2013

The Daily Telegraph Garden
Exhibitor: The Daily Telegraph
Designer: Christoper Bradley-Hole
Christopher Bradley-Hole's garden is an abstract design inspired by the English landscape, with Japanese overtones. His Latin garden for the Daily Telegraph in 1997 won Best in Show. He says: "The garden is a representation of England as a wooded landscape from which openings were cleared to allow settlement, civilisation and cultivation. English native trees and shrubs are used in a graphic way to create an understorey which expresses the way a field pattern has been superimposed on the land."

Picture: Martin Pope

B&Q Sentebale 'Forget Me Not' Garden

Exhibitor: B&Q Sentebale
Designer: Jinny Blom
This garden was inspired by Prince Harry's charity Sentebale, which supports vulnerable children in the African country of Lesotho. The garden is intended to evoke the landscape and culture of Lesotho, featuring round houses, muted colours and mountainous plants. Its designer, Jinny Blom, says it is also intended however to evoke the Prince's experience of losing his mother. A pattern of “heart and crowns” is engraved on the circular central terrace, based on a Lesotho blanket design which was loved by the Princess of Wales.

Picture: Martin Pope

East Village Garden

Exhibitor: Delancey
Designer: Michael Balston and Marie-Louise Agius
Inspired by the Olympic East Village, this garden is intended to represent the sustainable regeneration of an urban area. It combines urban-feeling materials such as steel and glass with vibrant planting. Co-designer Michael Balston said: "When I visited East Village for the first time I was struck by the amount of public and private green space. It was... fundamental to the inspiration behind the East Village Garden."

Picture: Martin Pope

The Brewin Dolphin Garden
Exhibitor: Brewin Dolphin
Designer: Robert Myers
A relaxing space with its plants drawn heavily from UK native species. Telegraph writer Bunny Guinness says: "Robert Myers restricted his plant palette to predominantly British native plants. This was a good twist, hopefully making more gardeners realise what a great range of excellent native garden plants there are, and Robert has used them in a contemporary setting."

Trailfinders Australian Garden presented by Flemings
Exhibitor: Fleming's Nurseries
Designer: Phillip Johnson
A quirky "off the grid" garden which demonstrates its designer's environmental passions. It uses solar panels and recycled water, while all the building materials are also locally-sourced, or reclaimed.

The Homebase Garden
Exhibitor: Homebase
Designer: Adam Frost
A "modern family garden", designed to allow a small family to garden, entertain and enjoy themselves, but also encouraging wildlife to thrive.

Picture: Martin Pope

The Wasteland

Exhibitor: Kate Gould Gardens
Designer: Kate Gould
The story behind Kate Gould's garden is that it was once a derelict urban space, transformed into a garden using recycled items, such as the insides of an old mattress reworked into a trellis screen and shopping trolleys turned into frames. It is intended to demonstrate that beautiful gardens can be built without sourcing new materials.

Picture: Martin Pope

The Laurent-Perrier Garden
Exhibitor: Laurent-Perrier
Designer: Ulf Nordfjell
Ulf Nordfjell’s garden for Laurent-Perrier has been described by Telegraph columnist Val Bourne as "an evocation of a vineyard involving lots of Mediterranean plants that evoke the French landscape".

Picture: Martin Pope

M&G Centenary Garden
Exhibitor: M&G investments
Designer: Roger Platts
Designed to mark the Chelsea Flower Show's centenary, this garden evokes trends and themes from Chelsea gardens past and present. Shrubs popular when the show began in 1913 and classic British design elements are mixed with modern plant varieties.

Picture: Martin Pope

RBC Blue Water Roof Garden

Exhibitor: Royal Bank of Canada
Designer: Professor Nigel Dunnett and the Landscape Agency
In keeping with the bank's Blue Water Project, which aims to help protect fresh water, the RBC's urban rooftop garden focuses on how city dwellers can create a garden which supports biodiversity and protects natural resources. Features include "living walls" that do not require irrigation and a wetland area which captures rain.

Picture: Martin Pope

The SeeAbility Garden
Exhibitor: SeeAbility and Coutts
Designer: Darren Hawkes
This garden is the first RHS Chelsea show garden from designer Darren Hawkes, and is a garden for the blind and partially-sighted. it features bright, clearly contrasting plants that can be distinguished more easily by partially-sighted people, and an installation of stainless steel balls cascading with water.

Picture: Martin Pope

Stockton Drilling as Nature Intended Garden
Exhibitor: Stockton Drilling Ltd

Designer: Jamie Dunstan
Designed to promote the use of natural materials and traditional craft, this garden features a number of plants with important uses - such as a field of winter barley (used within the brewing industry) and taxus (used in the treatment of cancer). Telegraph writer Tim Richardson says "This is one of the most conceptually interesting gardens this year."

The Fera Garden: Stop the Spread
Exhibitor: the Food and Environment Research Agency
Designer: Jo Thompson
Disease and death pervade this garden, which is themed around the threat that diseases, pests and invasive species pose to British trees and plants. Features include a grove of dead trees in one corner, and a striking lonely ash sapling on its own island.

The Arthritis Research UK Garden
Exhibitor: Arthritis Research
Designer: Chris Beardshaw
This lush garden is divided into three parts; a woodland garden, a brightly planted section and a pool garden with a modern sculpture. They are designed to reflect the three stages of a person's journey after being diagnosed with arthritis.

Transformation
Exhibitor: Stoke-on-Trent Garden Partnership
Designer: The Landscape Team, Stoke-on-Trent City Council
A bright and busy garden dedicated to Stoke-on-Trent past and present, which also celebrates the city's links with Lidice, a Czech village nearly destroyed during the Second World War.

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