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The Garden Structures

There are five principle fabricated structures: a steel 'wire-frame' pavilion that reflects traditions but is a decorative support and frame used for informative viewing; a steel mesh deck, designed to undulate and dip to echo the water's ripples on the pool; a PVC and steel tensile canopy structure, designed and positioned to give the viewer a sense of place, scale and how they could use the garden; next to a hand made bread oven and a playful and unique water feature made from recycled Chinese vegetable oil tins.

Steel demonstrates its versatility in design but also that it is a fully recyclable material.

We have purposefully used reclaimed materials, principally stone which is a major component of the garden. It has been used traditionally as paving, but also to build the bread oven, construct the mosaic of the dragon (the protector of the garden and Chinese symbol of good fortune), the 'mountain' and its standing stones. The standing stones are made purposefully from off-cuts, usually viewed as waste when large pieces are squared up. They have rough and natural sides and sawn flat sides to the opposite face, symbolising the ancient and the modern faces of contemporary culture. The garden reconciles apparent opposites. MIRIAD, the garden designer, is an institute created to discover new synthesis out of apparent cultural contradictions and bring us closer together and in harmony with the natural world of which we are a part.

Chinese gardens adopted the technique of imitation and formal symbolism to recreate natural landscapes in an enclosed space. Private gardens sought to present the feeling of the vast wilderness through small details. Often the details were representative of famous landscape scenes and reproduced abstractly with limestone rocks and highly managed native plants. We found some beautiful twenty-five year old pieces of weathered limestone for our garden but opted not to use it because of the environmental damage being caused by people stealing it from the natural landscape for use and sale for gardens. In fact, we also had limestone from George Best's garden! Now, there's a tale. Instead, we have opted for green quartz and weathered sandstone.

Royal Horticultural Society

2008 RHS Flower Show Tatton
23 - 27 July 2008
Tatton Park, near Knutsford, Cheshire
Site: C69