My landscape to the Grand Village outside ExCel
Grand Designs Live was held at ExCel London on June 2-4th and proved to be a very exciting show. I was asked to design a landscape for the Grand Village area outside the main entrance, where modular show homes such as Huf Haus, Pad and Container City were being displayed.
The landscape formed the main focus of the area and proved very popluar with the exhibitors and viewing public, who made good use of it. I designed the landscape as a demonstration of sustainable priciples, of which the primary features were:
- rammed earth garden walling (no cement)
- Copings cast using cement substitutes and recycled aggregates
- gravel using drainabge grids and recycled aggregates
- water feature which combined grey-water cleansing from houses
- planting with a high degree of edible fruit, nuts and flowers
- timber edgings made from recycled breakwaters
- benches and sculptures made from recycled and found materials
On the Saturday I was also involved in two seminars on sustainability, the first on the general question of what sustainable means and the second on sustainable gardens. These proved very popular and raised some interesting ideas. As a result of all this, I am now processing many requests for work, from the Orkney Isles to Italy!