Architect Laurie Chetwood and landscape designer Patrick Collins teamed up with leading experts from Gazeley, global provider of sustainable logistics space, P & G Prestige Products and long-standing construction partners, to create a garden that combined Elizabethan scents with modern day cutting-edge sustainability for the 2009 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The unique concept, and dramatic implementation, of the garden has now been recognised with the receipt of the two prestigious awards:
• Gold Award (show garden)
• Most Creative Award (show garden)
The Most Creative Award is a discretionary prize, presented only when the judges feel that the design of a garden has set new standards of imagination and innovation.
An original recipe for rosewater infused perfume created by Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th Century has been the inspiration for the garden, along with modern day sustainability techniques bringing to together old and new. The garden, which is sponsored by Gazeley, Chetwoods, P&G Prestige Products, as well as co-sponsors Kingspan, Kelly Taylor, Simons Group, Capita Symonds Structures, Atlas Ward and SJ Berwin, includes the following unique elements:
• Architecture that thrills all of the senses and creates an aura of wellbeing, while being environmentally sound
• A pocket perfumery, from growing plants to distillation, production, bottling and selling
• A spiral in the central apothecary where the perfume is produced
The garden takes inspiration from pioneering sustainable technologies developed by Gazeley. The central perfumery incorporates a sculptural wind turbine, rising from its centre like a flower stamen to power the lighting and irrigation of the garden. It is fed from this central feature with water and electricity from the borehole/ rainwater harvesting, photovoltaic panels and the wind turbine. The garden wall is cedar and incorporates ecological features such as insect ‘hotels’ as well as wet and dry habitats. It is lit at night using the included national resources in the form of side emitting fibre optics.
Jonathan Fenton-Jones, Director of Sustainability and Global Procurement at Gazeley said, “Gazeley is proud to be supporting the perfume garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. It is essential the people understand the importance of how sustainable processes and technologies can easily be applied to modern day developments.
“Combining modern day construction and sustainability has been central to Gazeley’s business strategy since 2001. Gazeley works with an array of experts that form the international sustainable virtual team to combine leading-edge materials, technologies and construction processes to create the most environmentally advanced logistics spaces in the world.”
All partners involved recognise the importance of ensuring the legacy of this unique garden, which will be recycled to inspire future generations and promote the role of sustainability in modern day life.
As well as modern day construction, the garden is also focused on encouraging visitors to touch the past through the sense of smell. To do this they have not only designed a scent-filled garden but also P&G Prestige Products has created a modern interpretation of Queen Elizabeth I’s perfume to mark the event. A proportion of sales of the perfume will be donated to SolarAid, a charity that enables the world’s poorest people to have clean, renewable power.
“We wanted to connect with visitors in multiple ways,” says Laurie Chetwood. “We wanted them to be able to walk through and experience our garden, enjoy it and learn how perfumes are made at the same time – the story of perfume from plant to bottle. Then, when they are entranced by the magic of perfume, they can experience an historic scent that reminds them of the garden but most importantly provides an olfactory window into the past and a hint of the personality of Queen Elizabeth I.”
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