As the UK’s leading gardening charity – the Royal Horticultural Society is passionate about the positive impact gardening can have on people and places. We are proud to sponsor Xiya Xu, Landscape Architect here at The Paul Hogarth Company, together with her team at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Show Festival in London. Their show garden entitled ‘Sunlight Shining Through’ won a Gold Medal Award for its response to climate change, use of sustainable materials and illustration of nature’s incredible adaptability.
Xiya Xu
The RHS Festival is a gathering place for professional garden designers, offering inspiration and insight into professional workflows and planting. Zhechen R., Tongheng Liang, Minjie Yang and I met while studying at the University of Sheffield. We recognised this as a fantastic opportunity to come together and express our shared design philosophy, creating thoughtful designs that reflect the surrounding landscape while highlighting the challenges of today’s world.
Inspiration
Inspired by the raw beauty and resilience of coastal landscapes in the Mediterranean and southern England, and recognising the significant impact of Climate Change, our design champions climate-adapted planting, sustainable materials, and biodiversity. These, in combination with warm tones, contrasting textures, and locally sourced elements, reflect the vibrant spirit and adaptability of coastal gardens in our changing world.
Design Process
Our aim is to translate the subtle, intangible feelings we experienced along these coastlines into a tangible design language, using colour, texture and form. To embody the coastal character and respond to the coastal microclimate, we selected drought tolerant planting and hard materials including shells and crushed shells to use as mulch. This improves drainage and adds calcium, ideal for alkaline & drought-tolerant plants. In order to pay homage to the fishermen we met along the journey we selected crab pots as feature objects.
Installation
After months of planning and preparation we faced the challenge of installing in just four days, which was both an intensive yet rewarding experience. The unique requirements of exhibition gardens demand special considerations in design, construction, and maintenance. For example, plants remain potted to limit root expansion, necessitating careful attention to drainage and thorough watering.
As climate change transforms our ecosystems, we hope our garden ‘Sunlight Shining Through’ is a celebration of adaptability and resilience. We hope it brings a sense of joy and spirit to those who attend the festival and those who visit it year-round when it is relocated to its permanent home.
Gardens throughout the festival
This year’s festival showcased a range of responses to the challenges of today, with an emphasis on climate change and social impact through a notable fusion of styles, materials and planting. This eclectic approach generates new aesthetic possibilities and enhances the resilience of gardens. This, together with the incorporation of green infrastructure to enhance biodiversity and strengthen ecosystems, demonstrates proactive attitudes to the growing impacts of climate change.
Another notable emerging trend reflects psychological and behavioural shifts driven by contemporary socio-technical conditions, such as the adoption of digital technologies and the transformation of work patterns. Designers are increasingly exploring how gardens can function as “therapeutic infrastructure” to help mitigate the effects of social isolation and our growing disconnection with the natural world.
Gardens by Nilufer Danis; Sadie May Stowell; Jude Yeo and Emily Grayshaw, Inspired Earth Design
The RHS Festival highlights the evolving role of horticulture and landscape design in addressing environmental and social issues. This experience has allowed us to learn and grow as designers, which we will take with us into our practice. We want to thank all those who supported us throughout the process. We are extremely grateful and honoured by this achievement, and look forward to future opportunities!
Thank you to:
Matthew Childs and Clarissa Freeman for their mentorship;
Re-form Landscape Architecture Ltd. and The Paul Hogarth Company for their generous support;
The fantastic plant suppliers Hortus Loci Ltd, The Palm Centre, Squire’s Garden Centres and The Beth Chatto Plants & Gardens.
