Breaking Ground, Chelsea 2017

Our gold-medal winning garden for Wellington College highlights an ambition to break down barriers to education, and explores the themes of progress, evolution and thought patterns. The design references the synaptic activity which governs our thought process and triggers our cognitive connections to facilitate ideas.

Planting is inspired by the bleak Berkshire heathland that surrounds Wellington College and highlights the plight of this threatened habitat, but one in which the College’s pupils thrive.  Majestic, aged hawthorn and birch trees speak to the individuality and unique qualities of future generations.

A series of transparent, sculptural, four-metre high steel walls run through the garden connecting various elements and materials. Etched with the students’ personal messages about their visions for the next century, the wall was reconstructed after the show at the College’s new arts building.