海角视频

The Royal Entomological Society Garden at Stratford Cross

London, UK

海角视频 played a critical role in delivering the successful relocation of a Chelsea Flower Show garden, bringing its important message around biodiversity to a new residential complex in the capital.

A Main Avenue Show Garden at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023, The Royal Entomological Society (RES) Garden was designed to inspire an interest in insects and insect science, and highlight the essential purpose these creatures serve in the health and future of our environments.  

The garden, which was supported by Project Giving Back, was awarded an RHS Silver-Gilt Medal. The work of landscape architect Tom Massey, the unique garden aimed to impress upon the public how our choices impact insects, through the plants we cultivate, the habitats we create and preserve, and the time and interest we put into researching and protecting them.

The Royal Entomological Society (RES) Garden was designed to inspire an interest in insects at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023.

The Society developed a vision to relocate Tom Massey鈥檚 garden to the new mixed use development.

We were engaged to provide a range of services to the garden relocation, covering civil and infrastructure engineering, outdoor lighting design, and electrical infrastructure.

The relocation was carefully planned to ensure the installation of mature trees and a central pavilion structure, did not impact the infrastructure serving neighbouring sites.

Challenge

The Society was keen that the garden and its important message should enjoy a longer life than the week of the flower show itself in May 2023. Working with Stratford City Business District and developer Lendlease, the Society developed a vision to relocate Tom Massey鈥檚 garden to the new mixed use development being created on the former Olympic site at Stratford in east London.

Stratford Cross (formerly known as IQL) will be a vibrant new neighbourhood built for modern life and capturing the buzz of the Olympic Legacy. New homes, workplaces, tree-lined boulevards with restaurants, retail and community facilities will all be within easy reach of the new cultural powerhouse of East Bank. A site at the heart of the new development was chosen for the relocation of the garden, where it would provide a peaceful place for community recreation and learning.

海角视频 has worked across multiple developments across the regeneration area, from the Olympic Stadium and the Games鈥� legacy through to the reimagining of the Stratford waterfront as the East Bank cultural quarter, housing the likes of Sadler鈥檚 Wells East and V&A East. We have also worked with LendLease on the development of Stratford Cross (IQL).

Given our teams鈥� in-depth knowledge of the site, its heritage and infrastructure, we were engaged to provide a range of services to the garden relocation project, covering civil and infrastructure engineering and outdoor lighting design, while our MEP team was engaged to plan and deliver electrical infrastructure to the site.

The biggest challenge the project faced was successfully relocating an entire garden on to a site that was already busy with a range of infrastructure and services at differing depths beneath the ground. The relocation would need to be carefully planned to ensure the installation of mature trees and the garden鈥檚 central pavilion structure, did not adversely impact the infrastructure serving neighbouring sites. It was also critical to ensure that subterranean obstacles did not hinder the trees鈥� healthy growth in the coming years.

Solution

The garden was inspired by the unexpected beauty and biodiversity found on British brownfield sites. These previously human inhabited spaces are full of biodiversity, housing an array of plant species and wildlife. With more than 80% of the UK population now living in urban areas, brownfield sites must be considered as important for biodiversity as rural sites. This made its relocation to one of the country鈥檚 best known brownfield regeneration sites particularly pertinent.

The garden also seeks to teach communities how to better support insect life 鈥� demonstrating ways to create a range of habitats for insects, utilising often discarded materials such as deadwood sculptures, piles of rubble, sand and gabions filled with waste materials. The planting scheme was also designed to encourage and support insects 鈥� a mix of native and non-native plant species provided a wide range of food sources for pollinators. Plants such as hazel were also included as key caterpillar food plants.

An 鈥渙utdoor lab鈥� was the central feature of the garden. The convex roof, was inspired by the compound eye of an insect, spanning 7m in diameter and constructed using hundreds of laser-cut hexagonal panels. Our MEP teams ensured an electrical supply to this teaching area, as well as serving all the outdoor lighting scheme, devised by our lighting specialists.

With the main aim of the insect serving as an outdoor educational classroom focusing on the importance of insects in our ecosystem, the lighting design had to respect the main inhabitants and minimise adverse impacts. An insect’s peak of vision is in the ultraviolet spectrum. Using the insect鈥檚 visual system as reference, the dome structure was illuminated with red light and deep amber 鈥� wavelengths that insects cannot see or are less susceptible to. In keeping with the celebration of colour occurring during daytime when sunlight passes through the hexagonal windows, walking into the dome gives you the feeling of walking in a soothing meditation or serenity room.

The lighting scheme is also designed to highlight the key features of the garden and safely extend its community use into the evening. Lighting within the pavilion ensures the 鈥渂ug鈥檚 eye鈥� roof is fully illuminated, while additional decorative lighting around the garden includes projections of butterfly and insect imagery. Our civil engineers assessed and plotted the existing infrastructure beneath the site and ensured the coordination of the garden elements with any underground obstacles and utilities.

Value

The relocated RES Garden will serve a dual purpose of providing a home for biodiversity to flourish at the heart of the development, while also supporting community learning around entomology and ecology.

As well as extending the life and legacy of this important garden and its critical message, its retention also helps to minimise waste from the Chelsea Flower Show. This spirit of reuse and waste avoidance included the careful disassembly of a greenhouse structure that was previously on the garden鈥檚 new site, for donation to a community garden in Kent.

Our team played a critical role in delivering the successful relocation of the garden, ensuring its installation did not adversely impact the existing infrastructure and utilities serving neighbouring sites, and providing the electrical services and lighting design to ensure the garden can be fully enjoyed throughout the day and into the evening.