The development consists of a new 6000 sq. ft. facility comprising of activity/meeting rooms, a lounge area, IT room, youth café and kitchen. It facilitates a wide range of activities including music and drama, information technology and a Youth Café.

Concieved as a ‘Pavillion in the Park’, our brief was to come up with a planting scheme that complimented the vision of the design and the the buildings function as a focal point for the community. We wanted to select plants that engaged the community and especially the young people in the process of looking after a garden. Our thinking was that by encouraging them to look after the plants and learning about their function and the benefits they provide to nature, would would have an educational as well as an aesthetic benefit to the community.

Our selection included plants such as Verbena and Salvia, not only for their architectural beauty, but also their attractiveness to wildlife such as bees.
We also wanted to ensure the planting scheme complimented the bold, modern design of the building and its main architectural feature of a timber exo-frame so we chose a selection of natural plants like ‘Tree Ferns’ Dicksonia antarctica and ornamental miscanthus which were complimented by Astelia Silver Spear.

We wanted to select plants that had a long flowering season in order for the children to have the opportunity to learn about the garden throughout the season.

Of particular interest is a feature ‘cloud tree’ Buxus sempervirens which not only has an attractive architectural function that compliments the building but, by its positioning, encourages people to enjoy the benefits of the garden in a calm and reflective manner.